Netflix dropped the teaser trailer for “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft,” the animated series (premiering October 10) that reintroduces the badass archaeologist/adventurer from the popular video game franchise. This comes on the heels of Netflix‘s anime adaptation of James Cameron’s “Terminator” franchise, “Terminator Zero” (premiering August 29), from Skydance, Japanese animation studio Production I.G, and showrunner Mattson Tomlin.
Now, not only is Lara Croft animated, but this time it’s personal, and her journey turns existential.
Picking up after the 2018 game “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” the colorful 2D animated series bridges the timeline between the reboot “Survivor” trilogy of games and the original games. It finds Lara (voiced by Hayley Atwell) abandoning her friends but being drawn back home when a dangerous and powerful Chinese artifact is stolen from Croft Manor by a thief from her past. Thus, her globe-trotting, tomb-chasing adventure finally forces her to confront a dark side of “grief, death, and destruction.”
The voice cast also includes Allen Maldonado as Zip and Earl Baylon reprising his role as Jonah Maiava from the video game.
From Legendary Television, the series is from showrunner and executive producer Tasha Huo (“The Witcher: Blood Origin,” “Red Sonja”). Other executive producers include dj2 Entertainment founder and CEO Dmitri M. Johnson (“Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Life is Strange”), along with Timothy I. Stevenson; Jacob Robinson (“Skull Island”) under his company Tractor Pants; and Dallas Dickinson and Noah Hughes for Crystal Dynamics; as well as Howard Bliss and Jen Chambers. Powerhouse Animation is the animation studio in Austin, Texas, with Brad Graeber serving as executive producer.
The Netflix animated reboot of “Lara Croft” arrives ahead of Prime Video’s announcement of a live-action “Tomb Raider” series in development from “Fleabag” creator and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who will write and executive produce. The search is on for an actress to play the iconic adventurer.
Angelina Jolie starred in the first movie adaptation, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001).