Amazon Taps ‘The Marvels’ And ‘WandaVision’ Screenwriter To Help Pen Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Live-Action ‘Tomb Raider’ Series
Spencer Baculi
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In a move that does bode well for the storytelling quality of Lara Croft’s next live-action adventure, Amazon has reportedly enlisted the services of Marvel Studios screenwriter Megan McDonnell to help pen their upcoming Tomb Raider television series.
McDonnell’s addition to the Tomb Raider production team was first revealed on November 22nd, courtesy of her placing eighth overall in the 2023 edition of Variety’s annual 10 Screenwriters to Watch list.
Making the ranks thanks to her aforementioned Marvel work, which includes having served as a story editor on WandaVision – which she informed the outlet had been her “first professional writing job” – the inital writer hired for The Marvels, and a consulting producer on the upcoming Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, McDonnell’s entry on the list eventually ended concluded with a preview of her upcoming projects.
Therein, the outlet revealed “McDonnell has been busy writing for the Apple TV+ series Dark Matter, based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel, and Amazon’s Tomb Raider.“
Though she did not provide any specific insight into her work on the video game adaptation, McDonnell did provide Variety with a brief overview of her general approach to storytelling.
“I love to do something unusual with form. I aim to surprise,” she told the outlet. “And I try to write things that I want to watch.”
“Most of my stories start with whatever funk or crisis or feeling I’m living in,” she added, “then I figure out how to explore that through speculative fiction.”
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As of writing, information regarding Amazon’s live-action take on the popular video game series, including plot, casting, and release date details, remain scarce.
In fact, outside of its existence and McDonnell’s attachment, the only other currently available piece of information regarding Amazon’s Tomb Raider is that it is being scripted and executive produced by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Confirming her involvement to IGN in June, Waller-Bridge asserted, “There’s so much I can incorporate. I mean, the character of Lara Croft was inspired by Indiana Jones and James Bond. So there’s so much, and it just felt like the perfect final step in my own personal adventure through this kind of franchise world.”
“I love the idea of, as Steven Spielberg describes it, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’, as in being able to make things with that scale and to go on adventures that big and for the comedy and the heart to be matched but on this kind of great, great level,” she further detailed of her approach to the series. “And, actually, through all the adventure stuff that I’ve learned from those [franchises], it’s actually how to keep something feeling grounded as well as allow it to be bigger than itself in some way. And so hopefully that will all translate perfectly, seamlessly into Tomb Raider.”
Notably, Amazon’s Tomb Raider series is set to be just one part in the company’s planned ‘Tomb Raider universe’, an interconnected media endeavor that would connect through various television, film, and video game projects.
However, as of writing, the television series remains the only entry yet to have been officially announced.
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