A live-action Tomb Raider series by Amazon has been announced and will be spearheaded by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While announcements like these used to bemoan players as the odds of them turning out to be good were disappointingly low. However, thanks to properties like The Last of Us the prospect of a live-action Lara Croft series from a critical acclaim creator feels more enticing.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news, reporting that Waller-Bridge has a deal with Amazon and she’s being tapped to write the script for the Tomb Raider series. Waller-Bridge will serve as the executive producer for the show but doesn’t intend to star in it. Waller-Bridge will be joined by other executive producers like Ryan Andolina and Amanda Greenblatt, who launched their own production company and have a deal with Amazon.
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Waller-Bridge may appear to be an odd choice to head this newest Tomb Raider series, as her previous show, Fleabag, was a low-stakes comedy. However, Waller-Bridge is known for working on action movie scripts, adding a unique woman’s perspective, and including more jokes. She’s also going to co-star in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with Harrison Ford, serving as the female lead in the motion picture. Lara Croft is often seen as the female equivalent of Indiana Jones, so given Waller-Bridge’s connection with the Indiana franchise, it makes sense for the writer-actress to move over from one action-adventure series with an archeologist to another action-adventure series featuring an archeologist.
Tomb Raider is one of the few video game properties with several outside media properties that have had a variety of levels of success. There were a pair of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider live-action films in the early 2000s starring world-famous actress Angelina Jolie, and in 2018 there was a rebooted Tomb Raider film featuring Alicia Vikander. The 2018 movie wasn’t successful enough to spawn a sequel, yet there is also an upcoming Netflix animated Tomb Raider with Hayley Atwell starring as Lara Croft.
