An interconnected Tomb Raider universe spanning film, television and, of course, video games is currently in the works at Amazon.
Following the recent announcement that Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) is writing a Tomb Raider TV series for Amazon, it has also come to light that a new Tomb Raider film is being developed as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon has joined forces with Dmitri M. Johnson's dj2 Entertainment for a "massive rights deal to make a Tomb Raider feature film," as well as the aforementioned TV show and "at least one video game in the Lara Croft franchise." THR reports that the "idea is to build out a connected world of Tomb Raider, with the video game, TV series and film all interconnected in a fashion akin to what Marvel has already accomplished."
It was already known that a new Tomb Raider game is in the works. The next entry in the long-running action-adventure series is set to be developed by Crystal Dynamics -- the studio behind most modern Tomb Raider games -- and published by Amazon Games, rather than previous publisher Square Enix. This shakeup came about when the Embracer Group acquired both Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider IP itself from Square Enix last year. According to THR, while only one new Tomb Raider game has been confirmed at this point, additional games in the franchise are "considered likely."
dj2 Entertainment previously put together a deal for a Tomb Raider anime series, which was given a two-season order at Netflix in early 2021. Since then, the studio has been working out the rights to the property. Things moved ahead when the aforementioned Embracer Group deal went through, resulting in Crystal Dynamics regaining control over the Tomb Raider franchise from Square Enix. Johnson and dj2 also signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios in 2022. The studio will focus on adapting video games for Amazon's Prime Video streaming service. In addition to Tomb Raider, other planned adaptations include Life Is Strange and Disco Elysium. dj2 previously co-produced Paramount Pictures' live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film.
Lara Croft Returns to the World of Film
Of course, Amazon and dj2's upcoming Tomb Raider film will not be the first time the popular video game series has been given the cinematic treatment. 2001 saw the release of the Paramount film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which starred Angelina Jolie as franchise protagonist Lara Croft. Jolie reprised her role for a sequel, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life, which released in 2003. The franchise received a big-screen reboot courtesy of MGM and Warner Bros. Pictures' 2018 film Tomb Raider, which saw Alicia Vikander take over the role of Lara Croft.
A sequel to Vikander's film was planned, though entered a state of limbo and was ultimately scrapped. It came to light in July 2022 that MGM had lost the film rights to Tomb Raider after the window to officially green-light a sequel to the 2018 reboot closed. At the time, it was reported that the rights would be auctioned off and the role of Lara Croft would be recast. Interestingly, this occurred shortly after Amazon closed a deal to acquire MGM. Amazon itself has now re-secured the screen rights to Tomb Raider.
The Tomb Raider Games Have a 25+ Year History
Developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive, the original Tomb Raider video game -- which introduced players to Lara Croft for the very first time -- released in 1996. Core Design went on to develop several more Tomb Raider games, with Crystal Dynamics taking the reins on the series in 2006. The studio developed such titles as Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld, which were published by Eidos.
More recently, Crystal Dynamics developed the first two entries in the Tomb Raider franchise's reboot trilogy -- dubbed the Survivor trilogy -- which was published by Square Enix Europe (Square Enix acquired Eidos in 2009). The Survivor trilogy began in 2013 with Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider. The studio returned to develop a sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, which followed suit in 2015. Developer Eidos-Montréal then closed out Square Enix's Survivor trilogy with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which released in 2018. Crystal Dynamics' next, Amazon-published game is said to unify the timelines, so to speak, combining elements from the original series (including the Core Design games) and the Survivor trilogy.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter