Streaming service picks up Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Tomb Raider’
Showcasing yet again that no franchise will ever be allowed to sit on the shelf and gather dust for too long in the IP-obsessed entertainment industry, Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s Tomb Raider series has been handed a full-season order by Prime Video.
It was first announced in January 2023 that Amazon MGM Studios had acquired the rights to the classic video game property, with the Fleabag creator becoming attached shortly afterwards. It may have taken over a year, but at last, the show has been given an official green light, with Lara Croft heading back to screens.
Having already been rebooted on consoles through the Survivor trilogy and on the big screen when Alicia Vikander stepped into the role previously played by Angelina Jolie for the 2018 blockbuster, it’s hardly a new development for the pixelated adventurer to be given a fresh coat of paint. However, in addition to being a proven and hugely talented writer, scribe and executive producer, Waller-Bridge’s lifelong fandom of Tomb Raider places Amazon’s overhaul in capable hands.
“If I could tell my teenage self this was happening I think she’d explode,” Waller-Bridge said in a statement accompanying the reveal. “Tomb Raider has been a huge part of my life and I feel incredibly privileged to be bringing it to television with such passionate collaborator. Lara Croft means a lot to me, as she does to many, and I can’t wait to go on this adventure. Bats ‘n all.”
Prime Video’s show isn’t the only episodic Tomb Raider project in the works, Netflix are creating an animated series set to premiere before the end of 2024 featuring Hayley Atwell voicing Croft, so it’s all systems go for the long-running video game saga on multiple fronts.
Vikander was originally set for a sequel to her solitary outing as the intrepid protagonist, with Ben Wheatley and Misha Green both signing on to direct before dropping out, prior to Amazon swooping in to strike a deal and handing Waller-Bridge the keys to the kingdom.
No stranger to dealing with hunts for mystical artefacts – having recently co-starred with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Tomb Raider will mark Waller-Bridge’s first major project under the lucrative development deal she signed with Amazon Studios in 2019, although it hasn’t been for lack of trying.
She was tasked to co-create a new iteration of Mr. & Mrs. Smith alongside Donald Glover before dropping out due to creative differences, but Tomb Raider makes for a more than acceptable substitute, given her appreciation for the source material.
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