Amazon’s ‘Tomb Raider’ Stuck In Development Hell, Phoebe-Waller Bridge Reportedly Still Has “No Script” For Live-Action Series
It looks like yet another live-action Lara Craft project is headed straight for the history books, this time as a new report suggests that development on the previously-announced Tomb Raider live-action series from Amazon and writer Phoebe-Waller Bridge has all but officially stalled out, with absolutely zero progress having been made on its script.
This latest update regarding Amazon’s take on the video game heroine was provided to the public courtesy of Puck News founder, proprietor, and former The Hollywood Reporter editorial director Matthew Belloni.
Reflecting on the extensive leadership failures of now-former Amazon MGM boss Jennifer Salke, who announced her departure on March 25th following an alleged behind-the-scenes battle regarding the post-Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson direction of the James Bond franchise, Belloni at one point turned to the topic of his “favorite Salke move”, which he said “was giving Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the breakout creator of Fleabag, a $20 million-a-year overall deal in 2019.”
“Sure, the TV business is littered with failed overalls,” he explained, “but when Waller-Bridge generated nothing in three years, Salke renewed the deal. Now, three years after that renewal, she still has nothing to show for it. Tomb Raider, which Waller-Bridge has been working on and which Salke was personally overseeing after announcing a series pickup last May, has now gone through two writers rooms and tens of millions of dollars in development costs. There’s still no script.”
Notably, the fact that Tomb Raider is in such a state of development hell comes as very little surprise given the fact that outside of reports from late last year that Dark Phoenix star Sophie Turner had completed some screen tests for the role of Lara Croft, Belloni’s scoop is the only major progress update the project has received since it was first announced in May 2024.
In fact, all the public really knows about the series is Waller-Bridge’s excitement towards getting to handle the IP, which she detailed to IGN shortly before it was officially announced.
“There’s so much I can incorporate,” said the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star. “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 added. “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.”
Interestingly, rather than a stand-alone television series, Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider was announced as one part of a ‘Tomb Raider universe’ at Amazon.
To this end, it’s currently unclear just how the series’ lack of progress will effect either the planned franchise film, which Waller-Bridge is also said to be attached to, or Amazon’s overall shared universe plans.
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