Recently, I watched the animated TV series, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, on Netflix with Hayley Atwell voicing the titular character. It’s actually a continuation of the “Survivor” trilogy of games, picking up after the events of the final game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Some of the characters from these recent games appear in the show, such as Lara’s friends, Jonah and Samantha. The show takes Lara on a journey to find the Peril Stones before a man named Charles Devereaux, voiced by Richard Armitage, collects them all, forcing the laws of nature out of balance. It is a very well crafted show by Powerhouse Animation Studios, who also brought to life the Castlevania animated series on Netflix. As someone who has played the games, I enjoyed seeing Lara’s struggle to cope with the loss of her mentor, and how it shapes her into the heroine we’ve all come to know and love. Overall, a very enjoyable series with beautiful animation and a great cast of characters. Season 2 can’t come soon enough.
But I’m not here to write about the animated series. As I was watching the show, it reminded me just how much I love Tomb Raider and even after nearly 30 years, it is still one of my favorite franchises of all time. That series is the reason for half of my username, which I created over 20 years ago and still use to this day. Obviously. The other half, of course, is from Final Fantasy, another one of my all time favorite video game franchises.
The very first Tomb Raider game came out in 1996 for PC and PlayStation. I didn’t own a PlayStation at the time so my dad bought me the game for PC and I was instantly hooked. I played the next 3 entries that followed it before high school consumed all my time and I wouldn’t play another Tomb Raider game again until college. It wouldn’t be until years later that I went back and finished the 5th and 6th games in the series. While in college, they released a remaster of the original game for the PS2. It marked the first time I ever played the series on a console and it stayed that way with all future releases.
Though there hasn’t been a mainline Tomb Raider game since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the franchise has been getting a lot more attention recently. Earlier this year, they released the first 3 original games as a remaster. Recently, they announced that they are working on a remaster on the next 3 games in the series. Then, I read a rumor that they were going to work on another remaster of the first 3 games Crystal Dynamics did after acquiring Tomb Raider from Eidos Interactive. Needless to say, lots of news about Tomb Raider. At least from a video game standpoint. I have yet to play the remaster but I do like that they are re-releasing these classic games that I know and love to a newer audience and I hope people will enjoy them as much as I did.
In other Tomb Raider related news, they released the aforementioned animated show on Netflix, which, like I said, was incredible. Also, Amazon ordered a live-action TV series from Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It was announced sometime last year, and it wasn’t until recently that we finally got some sort of news as far as the development of the series. And the news is quite a big one as it was announced that Sophie Turner (Games of Thrones) would be playing the iconic heroine, Lara Croft. Like the rest of the internet, I was confused about their casting choice, but then I immediately let it go.
Back in high school, when the original Tomb Raider film came out starring Angelina Jolie, I was absolutely against the entire idea. Not only did I think that Angelina Jolie was the wrong choice (my choice was Denise Richards but she’s bad so….eh), I very much disagreed that the movie wasn’t going to be adapted from the very first game. I was a bit of an idiot as a teenager. In fact, it wasn’t until last year that I finally saw the first 2 original films. Absolute trash, but a fun movie. And relatively on-brand with the games at the time.
Hollywood’s next attempt would actually adapt from the first game of the reboot series. Loosely. There were definitely some changes. But they cast Alicia Vikander in the title role and I was optimistic since she sort of resembles the re-design from the reboot trilogy. That movie also turned out to be a hot dog turd. Visually, they definitely captured the look and feel of the game. It didn’t work, otherwise we would have already seen a second film, which was teased at the end of the first. However, that never happened.
We are 0-3 on live-action adaptations and I understand casting someone like Sophie Turner, who doesn’t really look the part, might not be a great choice. I’m remaining optimistic, though. Some of the work she’s done since Game of Thrones hasn’t been great but she’s the right age for the character they want to depict. She’s already British. She doesn’t have to pretend to do an English accent. Once she dyes her hair and we see pictures from set of Sophie Turner in full Lara Croft garb, I’m hoping people might come around and give her a shot. If she pulls off the look, I’m down for it. Her acting is another story but I hope she does well because I’m gonna watch the shit out of that show as soon as it premieres.
Personally, I would have looooooooved to have seen Hayley Atwell in the role. I thought she did a wonderful job voicing the character and she does, to me, resemble Lara Croft. She is a bit older than what Amazon is going for but if they were to make a TV series or a series of movies about Lara Croft in her later years, maybe on the verge of retiring from Archaeology, then I think Hayley Atwell would be perfect for that role.
Supposedly, Amazon is working with Crystal Dynamics on a brand new Tomb Raider game. Likely another reboot. I’m not entirely sure on the details. I don’t believe they’re going to continue on from the “Survivor” trilogy of games since the show will fill that void. Maybe these games will tie-in to the TV series and Sophie Turner does the motion capture. Who knows? I’m just theory crafting while I wait the next couple of years for them to release any sort of detail about the game.
In the meantime, I’ll probably pick up the remaster trilogy and re-live my tomb raiding days all over again.
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