Amazon is planning an interconnected Tomb Raider universe, with both a film and TV series on its slate.
Whilst you may well be as jaded as us when it comes to the concept of ‘shared universes’, there is one announcement today that has our interest piqued. It has been revealed that Amazon is investing heavily in the Tomb Raider franchise, with reports stating that we’ll be getting a film that connects with a Phoebe Waller-Bridge penned TV series. Plus, both may well be linked to the previously-announced video game as well.
Whilst the phrase ‘shared universe’ is usually a cue for a roll of the eyes, there is lots of potential here. The game that has been announced already is rumoured to feature an older Lara that we haven’t seen before, working with a younger team who have joined the fray, inspired by her exploits as a young intrepid adventurer.
Depicting a slightly older Lara creates a lot of narrative space for the film and Waller-Bridge’s series to work within. Whilst we’ve seen a couple of film adaptations to date (starring Angelina Jolie and then Alicia Vikander – pictured – as Croft), it feels like there are still plenty of interesting angles left to explore here.
Waller-Bridge is said to not be involved with the film adaptation, so we just hope that the types of creative differences that sometimes arise with linking shared universe projects together won’t affect her involvement in the TV adaptation.
Tomb Raider fans will be seeing lots of Lara Croft it seems, with an unconnected Netflix anime on the way too, which features Hayley Atwell voicing Croft. Amazon is said to be spending big on this one, so let’s hope they can do what has proved too much for most studios, and actually create a narratively compelling series of interconnected titles. The odds might be against them in this regard but we can hope, can’t we?
The Hollywood Reporter
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