The new Tomb Raider anime will unify the video game franchise's various continuities into a single timeline.
The series' attempt at creating a unified Tomb Raider timeline was revealed by the new show's writer and executive producer, Tasha Huo, in a video posted to Netflix's official YouTube channel. In the video, Huo describes how she is working with Crystal Dynamics, the studio that took over the development of the series with 2006's Tomb Raider: Legend, to create a new, singular timeline of protagonist Lara Croft's life that incorporates the events of all of the video games in the series. Huo also announced that Lumpia With a Vengeance actor Earl Baylon, who portrayed Lara's best friend Jonah in the 2013 reboot trilogy, will reprise the role for the new animated series, while Black-ish actor Allen Maldonado will voice the character of Zip, Lara's resident tech expert from the Legend timeline.
It was previously announced that Hayley Atwell, who played the role of Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will voice Lara in the new series. The series is being produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider series, which debuted in 1996 with a game that was released on PC, the original Sony Playstation, and the Sega Saturn.
Prior to this announcement, the storylines to the Tomb Raider video games were split into three distinct eras. The original game and its sequels up to 2003's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness comprise the series' first timeline, which was developed by series creator Toby Gard and the team at CORE Design. Following the poor critical reception to Angel of Darkness, development of the series was handed over to Crystal Dynamics, who at that time was best known for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and their parody platforming franchise, Gex. Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series with the previously mentioned Tomb Raider: Legend, which kept some of the more fantastical elements of the original games but featured a new redesign for Lara Croft, as well as modernized analog controls and gameplay mechanics. While Legend and its sequels were postively received, in 2013 Crystal Dynamics decided to reboot the series yet again with the simply titled Tomb Raider, which gave the series a grittier, more grounded tone and a bigger emphasis on combat and stealth. Crystal Dynamics did not develop the latest game in the series, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as the studio was busy working on Marvel's Avengers. That game was instead created by Eidos Montreal.
Source: YouTube