Oh, gosh — this is really happening.
We have our first look at Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Tomb Raider” series for Prime, and it features Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. Something feels off here. For a moment, I had to make sure this image was real, and not some other deepfake. No, it’s genuine — this is Turner as Lara Croft.
The series is currently in production, and the still released hints at a totally different Croft than the one movie fans had with Angelina Jolie starring in the role during the aughts.
Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), who claims to have been “obsessed” with the franchise and to have “grown up playing Tomb Raider,” is not only executive producing the series but has written all of the episodes. Back in October, we learned that she would be sharing co-showrunner duties with Chad Hodge. Meanwhile, Jonathan Van Tulleken (“Shōgun,” “Dope Thief”) is directing the episodes.
In addition to Turner, the cast includes Martin Bobb-Semple, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Jack Bannon, John Heffernan, Bill Paterson, Paterson Joseph, Sasha Luss, Juliette Motamed, Celia Imrie, and August Wittgenstein.
Do you think Waller-Bridge is actually happy that she’s no longer the sole creative brain behind the series? Was this reboot ever a good idea? Does Amazon/MGM really want to go down this path? Angelina Jolie popularized Croft on the big screen in the aughts, but there have been so many hurdles to Waller-Bridge’s iteration — including fan backlash — that they should have been seen as red flags.
One of Jen Salke’s most notable decisions as chief of Amazon/MGM was the $20M-per-year deal she gave Waller-Bridge in 2019, which has so far yielded a total of zero movies and shows. Not only that, but the deal was bafflingly re-upped three years later, and then re-upped again right before Salke’s exit. However, this time around, Waller-Bridge’s contract has been converted from an exclusive overall deal to a nonexclusive first-look deal — and “for significantly less” money.
Months later, Salke told Variety that she had no regrets about the overall deal with Waller-Bridge, and that we should consider all the money that’s been dished out to her as more of a “holding deal.”
