Summary
WhileTomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Crofthas a lot of potential to take advantage of the streaming boom that has made many multimedia franchises, it seems to have taken an affinity for its source material to the next step according to the official tagline.
Tomb Raiderhas been a popular franchise for decades now, with most of that popularity staying firmly within the video game industry, save for Lara Croft’s place in the cultural zeitgeist as one of the few universally recognized characters. This has always seemed like a wasted opportunity, which is why no one was surprised thatNetflix was planning aTomb Raideranime series alongsideKong: Skull Islandanime seriesback in 2021. Since then, fans have gotten a lot more detail about the upcoming series, including an official logline and some early trailers to hype up its October release.
WhileThe Legend of Lara Croft, whichcast MCU star Hayley Atwell in the lead role of Lara Croft, has a real chance of making the IP far more mainstream on a platform like Netflix, early signs seem to point to a product that won’t be as accessible to new fans as it could be. According to the official logline as seen on theNetflixwebsite page for the upcoming series, it explicitly states that the series carries on from the events ofRise of the Tomb Raider&Shadow of the Tomb Raider,the last two games in the franchise. While these games were well received and featured interesting character and story elements, it also means the sheer amount of homework required to truly appreciate the series might be way above even the most entrenched projects from the likes of DC or the MCU.
The series continues right after the events of the Survivor Trilogy of video games — Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider — and finds Lara abandoning her friends to embark on increasingly more perilous solo adventures. However, Lara (voiced by Hayley Atwell) must return home when a dangerous and powerful Chinese artifact is stolen from Croft Manor by a thief with an uncanny personal connection. Her daring pursuit will take her on an adventure around the world and to the depths of forgotten tombs, where she will be forced to confront her true self and decide just what kind of hero she wants to become.
While there are certainly ways for a show to get newcomers caught up on important things that happened in previous media, this is usually not as good as simply making a series that carries everyone along from the get-go. Furthermore, even if the show successfully picks up newer viewers, it will do so at the expense of the fans who have actually played the source material. This is an important balance to strike, as in addition toThe Legend of Lara Croft,Amazon is also working on a different take on theTomb Raiderseriesthat could potentially do better than Netflix’s version if it goes one way or the other. It’s unlikely that anyone will be playing a whole trilogy of games as a prerequisite to watching an animated series, so this could be a real issue.
No matter which way it goes, there’s no doubt thatTomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croftcan bridge the gap between two erasthanks to being set between the last trilogy and the older, more suave era of the original games. Whether or not this will be done to the detriment of bringing in new fans or not remains to be seen.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croftwill debut for streaming on Netflix on October 10th, 2024.
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is one of the biggest names in action-adventure gaming. The series began in 1996 and has had three trilogies of games: the original trilogy, the legend trilogy, and the survivor trilogy, as well as a handful of other titles in-between.The Tomb Raider series is led by protagonist Lara Croft, who is considered to be one of the most important female characters in gaming history.
