Hayley Atwell to play Lara Croft in new Tomb Raider cartoon on Netflix
The animated series will take place after the rebooted video game trilogy
TV News Tomb Raider
Fresh off of an excellent (vocal) appearance in the first episode of Disney+’s What If…? series, a role that served as a pay-off to a decade of appearances in Marvel movies where her character rarely got to do anything after the first Captain America movie, Hayley Atwell has landed another high-profile voice acting gig. As announced today in a press release from Netflix, Atwell is going to star in a new Tomb Raider animated series from Legendary Television and dj2 Entertainment, with the latter being a production company that is dramatically ramping up its work in video game adaptations. It produced the Sonic The Hedgehog movie, and it also has a hand in upcoming adaptations of Life Is Strange, Sleeping Dogs, and Disco Elysium.
For those steeped in the Tomb Raider lore, especially the modern reboot trilogy where Lara Croft repeatedly gets trapped in hostile environments and has to figure out how to Metroid/Uncharted her way out of things, this series seems like a particularly intriguing concept. It’s going to be set after all of the new games, charting her “latest, greatest adventure,” which seems to imply that the events of those games—in which Lara gets trapped on an island with a weather-controlling ghost queen, gets stuck in an old Soviet military facility on a mountaintop, and nearly triggers an actual Mayan apocalypse—will be canon to this universe. The final game, 2018's Shadow Of The Tomb Raider (which was disappointing overall but had one real dynamite level), repositioned Lara as a defender of ancient mystical artifacts rather than someone who raids tombs for them, so that seems like a solid setup to generate new globe-trotting adventures for her to go on.
It’s also worth noting that this will be the second attempt to adapt the new Tomb Raider video games, with the first being director Roar Uthaug’s forgettable take from 2018. That one was based on the first installment of the trilogy.
16 Comments
Is the cartoon going to be as enamored with torture porn as the games were?
Love Atwell, sheâs amazing and she has the perfect voice for the character.She also has the perfect, um, physique for the character should they ever want to put her in a live-action version.
Doesnât matter. After this announcement, sheâs sure to cosplay as Croft either for her insta or some random con/press junket and the onanists will be happy.
I agree, sheâs probably the only actress with a triangular prism shaped chest like Lara Croft.
đ¤ I wish we could get a version where Lara is also a renowned chef and have Nigella Lawson star.
Sold.
there needs to be animated adventures for Agent Carter. Why not? Marvel, make it happen.
Iâm good with anything that gives Hayley Atwell more work. Sheâs criminally under-utilized.Â
Kudos to the editors of this article who surely must have spent hours trying to find an unflattering picture of Hayley Atwell to use as their header image. Great job!Â
Hayley Atwell to play Lara Croft in new Tomb Raider
Fantastic!
cartoon Well, yeah, thatâs good too. I guess. … More âvoicingâ Lara Croft than âplayingâ her, but headline gonna headline.
âItâs going to be set after all of the new games, charting her âlatest, greatest adventure,â which seems to imply that the events of those gamesâin which Lara gets trapped on an island with a weather-controlling ghost queen, gets stuck in an old Soviet military facility on a mountaintop, and nearly triggers an actual Mayan apocalypseâwill be canon to this universe.âIt worked for the CG Resident Evil films.
This has to be the most disappointed geeks have ever been to read the word âcartoonâ in a headline.
I truly enjoyed Shadow of the Tomb Raider, both for making Lara more dynamic and flawed, and for focusing less on gunplay and more on exploration. This was closer to the classic titles (more tombs in a Tomb Raider game? Crazy cakes!), so itâs interesting that the less of an Uncharted clone it was, the less people liked it.Anyway Hayley Atwell is perfect. Just in general.Â
This seems cool and all, but the perverted part of me got really excited before I read the animated part.
Itâs going to be set after all of the new games, charting her âlatest, greatest adventure,â which seems to imply that the events of those gamesâin which Lara gets trapped on an island with a weather-controlling ghost queen, gets stuck in an old Soviet military facility on a mountaintop, and nearly triggers an actual Mayan apocalypseâwill be canon to this universe.You missed the part where she finds Jesus in the mountains and destroys the source of immortality, but, sure, I guess she technically was stuck in a military facility as well.
Hayley Atwell should be a perfect fit for Lara Croft, and this sounds promising.
However, the biggest takeaway from this article – for me, at least – is the news that thereâs going to be a Disco Elysium adaptation. By the same producers of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Like, Iâm sure theyâll take a different approach to the former adaptation, but… goddamn it. DE has one of the best, densest, craziest and most narratively interesting storylines in gaming history and itâll be a crime if any adaptation doesnât do it justice. Itâll have to be a TV show at least. Seeing it just as an item on some production companyâs to-do list is disheartening.