If you are looking for worthwhile video game adaptations, you can’t do much better than Netflix. The streamer is on an astoundingly consistent run, from Arcane and Castlevania to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Dragon’s Dogma, all of which find novel ways to bring the worlds of the video games that inspired them to life. And this week, Netflix is trying to add another success story to the list with the premiere of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft.
This animated show is a direct follow-up to the Survivor game trilogy (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider), which rebooted the series back in 2013. According to the synopsis, the TV show picks up as “Lara Croft has abandoned her friends to embark on increasingly more perilous solo adventures.”
“But she must return home when a dangerous and powerful Chinese artifact is stolen from Croft Manor by a thief with an uncanny personal connection,” the long synopsis from Netflix continues. “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.”
The voice cast of the Tomb Raider series will feature Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter) as Lara Croft, Allen Maldonado as computer specialist Zip, and Earl Baylon, who is reprising his role as Lara’s travel companion Jonah Maiava from the video games.
The series is produced by Powerhouse Animation, which also worked on Castlevania, Blood of Zeus, and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Creator and showrunner Tasha Huo (Red Sonja, The Witcher: Blood Origin) also served as writer and executive producer.
In an interview with Tudum, Huo explained that this series will be “the connective tissue” between the origin story of the latest games and the “superhero action adventure star” we know from the original games and the Angelina Jolie movies.
You can watch all 8 episodes of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft this Thursday.
