Phoebe Waller-Bridge wants to do something different with her forthcoming Tomb Raider series for Amazon Prime.
“There’s room to do something really quite dangerous," Waller-Bridge told Vanity Fair. "And if I can do something dangerous and exciting with Tomb Raider, I already have an audience of people who love Lara and hopefully will continue to. And that is a very unusual position to be in. It’s the old Trojan horse.”
The first Tomb Raider video game hit shelves in 1996, and saw archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft set out in search of an artifact called the Scion of Atlantis. Waller-Bridge herself is also a big fan of the video game, and was getting back into it when Amazon called her up and asked if she'd want to develop the series.
"God, it literally felt like that teenager in me saying: Do right by her, do right by Lara!” she continued. "The opportunity to have, as we were talking earlier, a female action character... Having worked on Bond and having worked as an actor on Indy, I feel like I’ve been building up to this."
Added Waller-Bridge: "What if I could take the reins on an action franchise, with everything I’ve learned, with a character I adore, and also just bring back some of that ’90s vibe? And it’s such a wonderful feeling to think you know what to do.”
It remains unclear whether Waller-Bridge will pull a full Fleabag and direct, write, and star as Lara Croft in the series. Angelina Jolie played the adventurer in the 2001 feature film adaptation Lara Croft: Tomb Raider directed by Simon West. A reboot starring Alicia Vikander was released in 2018.
Amazon Prime's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2023 and beyond.
