By acquiring the publishing rights to the upcoming Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics, Amazon certainly had broader plans than just the video game market. The new idea of the American giant is to fill its Amazon Prime Video catalog with game adaptations, and Tomb Raider is one of the ideal licenses for that. The Hollywood Reporter told us last night that Amazon is building a shared universe with the franchise, which would include a movie and a TV series in addition to the next game.
Lara Croft Cinematic Universe
We first learned that a series was indeed in preparation on the premises of Amazon and that it would have already found its writer. It would be the actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (known for the excellent series Fleabag), which would be present as a producer and would take care of the scripts of the episodes. However, she would not play Lara Croft, according to the site’s sources.
In addition to this TV series, a movie would also be in development, which may be surprising given that MGM, which is now part of Amazon, recently canceled the sequel to the film with Alicia Vikander, while losing the film rights in the process. Last I heard, GK Films was normally ready to sell these rights to the highest bidder, but it could be that Amazon has come back to succeed where MGM had failed in its time.
With all this, Amazon would like to make Tomb Raider a shared universe, which would also grow through the next video game. This a remark that makes sense when we remember the first details about the upcoming title from Crystal Dynamics. The latter mentioned that Lara would be accompanied by a whole team, while highlighting a new generation of adventurers. By enlarging its character gallery, the license could therefore consider a shared universe with, for example (we speculate), a series that would focus on other characters of this famous group while the movie would remain focused on Lara.
In any case, the means are put on the table according to The Hollywood Reporter, which claims that this deal represents the biggest commitment of Amazon after The Lord of the Rings franchise. It’s easy to understand why the company went to Embracer to partner with the distribution of the next game, which is apparently more advanced than expected.