From raiding tombs with Indiana Jones to Tomb Raider.
Amazon announced today that they are making a Tomb Raider television showwith Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The press release describes Waller-Bridge as “writer and executive producer” of the series; at this point anyway, it doesn’t mention an onscreen role for the multihyphenate.
The show is part of a collaboration between Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics and Amazon for Tomb Raider films and shows. The two companies are also supposedly working on a new “single-player, narrative-driven action-adventure” Tomb Raider game.
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Here was Waller-Bridge’s statement on the news:
If I could tell my teenage self this was happening I think she’d explode. 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.
If that’s true, Waller-Bridge’s role in the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny makes so much more sense, doesn’t it? But if she was interested in that role primarily as a means to get to scratch that tomb-raiding itch, now she’ll get to do the same in the actual Tomb Raider sandbox.
The last Tomb Raider adaptation to make it to screens was 2018’s Tomb Raider, starring Alicia Vikander in the title role. Based on recent games in the long-running franchise, the film had a disappointing performance at the box office, scuttling plans for an ongoing franchise with Vikander as Lara Croft. Angelina Jolie previously portrayed Croft in a pair of big-budget blockbusters in the 2000s.
