Picture: Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft – Crystal Dynamics
Netflix, Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix, and Legendary Television are teaming up for a brand new animated series based on the Tomb Raider video game franchise coming to Netflix in 2024.
First announced alongside an anime project for Skull Island back in January 2021, Tomb Raider is a brand new animated series project coming exclusively to Netflix.
Netflix lists the project on its own site as a Japanese anime action series that is described as “a road trip adventure.”
The IMDb description for the project is as follows:
“Follows heroine Lara Croft as she explores new territory.”
Tomb Raider as a franchise has been around since the mid-90s and has been one of the biggest gaming franchises in history which has also made its way to the big screen in the form of the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies.
In total, there have been 17 video games in the franchise with another entry reportedly on the way. The game will be coming up to its 30-year anniversary in just 3 years (feel old yet?).
Three movies have been released so far based on the video game IP including the two Angelina Jolie entries, including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Cradle of Life. A reboot starring Alicia Vikander came in 2018 with a sequel in development to be released by Warner Brothers.
The new series will pick up shortly after the events of the Square Enix trilogy of games that were released between 2013 and 2018.
At Netflix’s DROP-01 event, we finally received our first look at the upcoming anime series.
Who is involved in the Netflix Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft series?
Heading up the writing staff is Tasha Huo, who is currently working on three projects, including Tomb Raider. The other two are Black Belle and Red Sonja for Millenium Films, which will star Hannah John-Kamen.
On the 25th Anniversary of Tomb Raider, Huo spoke about the forthcoming series, saying they’ll be “unifying the timelines of Tomb Raider” and transitioning “beyond the survivor trilogy.”
Next up for #TombRaider25 – exciting casting news brought to you by Tomb Raider anime series’ showrunner @Tasha3point0. Welcome @earlybgoode & @AMiseverywhere! pic.twitter.com/fopMS8pzlT
— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) October 28, 2021
Joey Soloway is reportedly directing episodes of Tomb Raider. They’re best known for their work on Amazon Prime’s Transparent.
Legendary Television is producing the series for Netflix alongside Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix, DJ2 Entertainment, and Tractor Pants.
The animation studio working on the project will be Powerhouse Animation Studios which is behind Netflix’s Castlevania and most recently signed a first-look deal with Netflix. They operate out of Austin in Texas.
Powerhouse Animation Titles on Netflix
Howard K. Bliss, Stephan Vladimir Bugaj, Dmitri M. Johnson, and Jacob Robinson serve as executive producers.
What is the plot of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft?
At this moment in time details are still extremely limited on the plot of the upcoming series.
At the very least we know the anime takes place after the most recent Lara Croft trilogy of video games.
Where is the production of the Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft series?
Writing concluded on the project in late May 2021, with Tasha Huo posting that they’ve concluded the writing process, meaning it’s now down to the animators and voice artists to bring the words on paper to life. They appropriately celebrated by throwing axes.
That’s a wrap on the writers room! Already missing this amazing #TombRaider writing crew. Felt appropriate we end it with axes. @LAAXofficial pic.twitter.com/wbIcuMeicV
— Tasha Huo, Dragonrider (@Tasha3point0) May 28, 2021
Throughout the writing process, several pictures were posted on Twitter with the writers meeting via Zoom (it was being written during the COVID-19 pandemic).
Team #TombRaider Writers Assemble! @ShakiraPressley @TroyDangerfield and I take our Lara Croft action scenes very seriously. pic.twitter.com/x58u7v4rtM
— Tasha Huo, Dragonrider (@Tasha3point0) March 10, 2021
What characters from Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will appear in the Netflix series?
Well, let’s begin with the obvious. Tomb Raider will obviously feature Lara Croft.
We learned on September 13th that Lara is set to be voiced by Hayley Atwell, who is best known for playing Peggy Carter in Captain America and her own stand-alone series, Agent Carter.
Hayley Atwell cast as Lara Croft
One character that will be appearing in the Netflix series that we can confirm will be Zip.
Zip featured in both the original timeline and legend timeline but based on the cast listing, it appears the character in Netflix’s series will be more akin to the Zip seen in the Legends timeline.
Here’s his character synopsis for the new series:
“Hacker and tech geek. Zip was discovered by Croft Industries after he broke into one of their competitor’s databases. They recruited him and continue to pay him handsomaly.”
In October 2021 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the game, Square Enix announced that Allen Maldonado had been cast as the role of Zip.
Earl Baylon will be playing the role of Jonah Maiava in the Tomb Raider series. The voice actor has also voiced in Netflix’s Dynasty Warriors and Trese. Baylon notably voiced Jonah in the games.
Earl Baylon as Jonah
The series is one of many big-name video games getting adaptations on Netflix.
As you may know, Netflix is also getting into video games, with over a couple dozen mobile games currently available. Rumor has it that Tomb Raider will be joining Netflix’s roster of games shortly, with Tomb Raider Reloaded eying a rerelease on Netflix Games.
When is Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft coming to Netflix?
There’s currently no confirmation from Netflix when Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is coming to Netflix. Previously, we were led to believe that the series would arrive in 2023, however, we’ve since learned that a preliminary release date has been set for December 12th, 2024.
All release dates are subject to change. This means we could see Tomb Raider on Netflix earlier than the preliminary release date suggests.
That’s all we have on the new Tomb Raider anime series coming soon to Netflix for now, we’ll be sure to let you know more as and when we get it.