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The Tomb Raider franchise has seemed primed for a resurgence thanks to Netflix’s recent anime series, a rumored new game, and an in-development series for Amazon, but that last addition might not be happening anymore. In a new report from The Daily Mail, the series is described by their source as “dead”, adding “I hear that it is not going ahead.” The series was being developed and scripted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and was reportedly starring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, but if this turns out to be correct, that vision won’t end up making it to the screen (H/T Gamesradar).
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Amazon hasn’t commented on the report or revealed any sort of official confirmation either way, but the report states that Turner is busy with other films for most of the year, and Jennifer Salke, who originally gave the project the green light, is no longer in her role as head of Amazon Studios. Neither of those are great for the project, but it would still be a shame if this doesn’t happen, as until now things were seemingly chugging along relatively smoothly, at least from the outside.
The addition of Turner in the role of Croft was just revealed in late November of last year, and earlier that year Amazon gave the show a full pickup. Amazon had a lot of success last year with its Fallout adaptation, so Tomb Raider seemed like it could be the next big gaming property for the studio.
When the series pickup was announced at the Upfront presentation, Waller-Bridge couldn’t have been more thrilled to be at the helm of a new era for Tomb Raider. “If I could tell my teenage self this was happening I think she’d explode,” Waller-Bridge said. “Tomb Raider has been a huge part of my life and I feel incredibly privileged to be bringing it to television with such passionate collaborators. 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.”
[RELATED: New Tomb Raider Game Reportedly Going to Be Revealed Soon]
“She had an attitude. She was very deliberate in what she wanted to do. That all changed when they realized that they could market her to be a sex symbol,” Waller-Bridge told Vanity Fair. “She’s a tomb raider, so she’s incredibly fit. She has to squeeze through tiny rock crevices all the time. It is a different experience squeezing through a small rock crevice when you have larger boobs than if you have smaller boobs.”
Recently Netflix released a Tomb Raider series that starred Hayley Atwell as Lara, and there seemed to be more of a cohesive vision in the works for the character across all mediums and platforms with a new game in the works from Crystal Dynamics. That game has yet to surface, but hopefully, there’s more Tomb Raider on the way in TV form, because it would be a shame to not see what Waller-Bridge and Sophie Turner were working on to this point.
Are you disappointed about the Tomb Raider series, and what’s your favorite interpretation of Lara Croft? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Tomb Raider and TV with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
