Amazon’s Phoebe-Waller Bridge-Penned, Sophie Turner-Starring ‘Tomb Raider’ Aims To “Reinvent The Franchise On A Massive Scale”
Despite previous whispers suggesting the series was being laid to rest in one of its namesake burial grounds, work is still proceeding on Amazon’s live-action Tomb Raider series, and a recent update from one of its production companies has given fans all but direct confirmation that the project will be yet another Hollywood bastardization of a beloved ‘nerd IP’.
Set to be written by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Phoebe-Waller Bridge and starring Dark Phoenix lead Sophie Turner, the UK’s The Daily Mail reported in April that, per their alleged insider sources, Lara Croft’s small screen debut was outright “dead” and “not going ahead“.
However, the rumors of the series’ demise were subsequently marked as ‘greatly exaggerated’ in September, whereupon Amazon officially announced that Turner had been cast as the next live-action Lara.
Speaking on the former Jean Grey actress’ casting, Waller-Bridge declared, “I’m so excited to announce the formidable Sophie Turner as our Lara alongside this phenomenal creative team.”
“It’s not very often you get to make a show of this scale with a character you grew up loving. Everyone on board is wildly passionate about Lara and are all as outrageous, brave, and hilarious as she is. Get your artifacts out… Croft is coming…”
While no real word has been head of the series since, one of its production companies, Story Kitchen, recently updated their official website to add an entry for Tomb Raider to their portfolio of featured work credits.
And though said entry features only the barest of marketing copy, its limited word choice does give fans their insight into the series’ direction – and unfortunately, it contains one of the most worrying phrases in all of modern entertainment, as it explicitly states that far from just a single-show deal, Story Kitchen’s working agreement with Amazon will see them “reinvent the franchise on a massive scale, interconnecting a new live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”
Though worrying on its face, it should be noted that as of publication, neither Story Kitchen, nor Amazon, nor Waller-Bridge has offered any official comment as to what sort of ‘reinvention’ they’re aiming for – in other words, will it be something more akin to the original Ultimate Spider-Man comic, which sought to update the same base characters for the modern era, or Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits, its entire premise built on the director putting his own specific spin on Terry Gilliam’s original story.
However, if the embarrassingly forced, try-hard nature of both Netflix’s Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth TTRPG, the odds are good that Lara may soon find herself being used as a skinsuit for Waller-Bridge’s signature form of ’empoowerment-by-snark’.
As noted above, this direction is currently the only piece of solid information (and even then, barely so) that has been publicly detailed regarding Tomb Raider‘s narrative intent.
As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that the series has yet to receive any sort of official release date, prospective or otherwise.
