Back in May, it was announced that Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Tomb Raider television series was officially moving forward at Amazon's Prime Video. In a recent interview with TheWrap about the streaming service's upcoming projects, Amazon MGM Studios television head Vernon Sanders provided an update on the show's production status.
Pre-production seems to still be underway, but the studio is making good progress. Sanders added that they still need to find who will play Lara Croft, but he expects that production will begin early next year.
"We are hard at work. We’ve got great material. Phoebe is really good. We’re really excited," Sanders said. "My guess is we’ll spend the rest of this year getting things prepped so that we can start production early next year. We’ve got to find our Lara Croft, so that global wide search will start sooner rather than later."
Based on the blockbuster video game franchise, Prime Video's adaptation has been described as an "epic" and "globe-trotting" adventure. Specific plot details have not been announced yet, but there's no shortage of exciting adventures for Lara Croft to embark on.
The Tomb Raider video games have been around since the first game released in 1996 for PC, PlayStation, and SEGA Saturn consoles. A sequel, Tomb Raider II, was released a year later for PC and PlayStation.
Over the years, ownership of the video game franchise has shifted hands multiple times. Eidos Interactive owned it from 1996 to 2009 until Square Enix acquired Eidos in 2009. Embracer Group purchased the IP alongside Eidos in 2022, but now the franchise is currently owned by CDE Entertainment.
The video game series was rebooted in 2013 by Crystal Dynamics with the release of Tomb Raider, the first game in the planned Survivor trilogy. The sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, was released in 2015, followed by the third and final entry in the trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, in 2018. All three games were released to generally favorable reviews and were mostly successful with sales.
Amazon's Tomb Raider series isn't the first adaptation of the beloved video game franchise. Two film adaptations were made in the early 2000s that starred Angelina Jolie: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001, and its sequel, The Cradle of Life, in 2003. Both films were panned by critics, but were financially successful.
In 2018, a reboot starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft was released. The film was only slightly better received than the two original movies, but it still only managed a 52% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 55% Audience Score.
Video game adaptations have certainly improved quite a bit since, so there's hope that Phoebe Waller-Bridge's take on the franchise could be the best one yet.