Netflix’s upcoming “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” will bridge the gap between the franchise’s recent Survivor Trilogy and the original 90s video games. Showrunner Tasha Huo revealed that the series picks up where 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider left off, while exploring the transformation of Lara Croft into the iconic adventurer first introduced in the 90s.
The Netflix series aims to connect the dots between Lara’s formative years, as depicted in the Survivor Trilogy, and her seasoned, confident persona from the original Tomb Raider game on PlayStation 1. Huo discussed the challenge of respecting Lara’s evolution while transitioning her character into the fearless and skilled professional that fans initially encountered.
“I had the whole canon in my head because we were coming from the Survivor series,” Huo explained in an interview with IGN. “You had to honor who [Lara Croft] was — that person in those games — but move her into the person she was in the early 90s games, where she’s just a very different person.”
The Survivor Trilogy, lauded for its portrayal of Lara’s journey from vulnerability to resilience, required the show to carefully balance the character’s development. Huo highlighted the task of blending the darker, more introspective tone of the Survivor series with the humor and confidence of the 90s games. “Getting to kind of combine those two canons has been really fun,” she said.
Huo also teased that “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” will explore Lara’s relationships more deeply than previous installments. The series will expand on the idea that, despite her solitary nature in the games, Lara cares about those around her. “She’s so alone in the games,” Huo noted. “You get a sense that she has people here and there, but she must care about people. And that was also, I think, part of bringing it into the now — how does this woman, who is this incredible badass and who can accomplish so much alone, relate to people?”
The show will see Hayley Atwell reprise her role as Lara Croft, who, fresh from the events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, embarks on a new mission to recover an artifact stolen from Croft Manor.