lifetime Tomb Raider Fan Phoebe Waller-Bridge has spoken out on the subject of customization Lara Croft for her upcoming Prime Video series.
Back in April, before the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, Waller-Bridge sat down with Joy Press Vanity Fair. During the newly released interview, Waller-Bridge spoke about the development of the upcoming Tomb Raider series as well as her teenage addiction to the original video games. “My parents were very smart because they didn’t really restrict me. They sensed that I would just bring myself to my knees, and so I did,” Waller-Bridge said. “I packed the PlayStation and thought, ‘I can’t do this because I have to write, read and do other things.'”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s love for Lara Croft
Although Waller-Bridge gave up her PlayStation controller, she continued to love the character Lara Croft. “She had an attitude. “She was very conscious of what she wanted to do,” said the Solo: A Star Wars Story graduate. “That all changed when they realized they might market her as a sex symbol.” Still, Waller-Bridge dove back into Tomb Raider during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. So it seemed destiny when Amazon asked her to write a small screen adaptation.
“God, it literally felt like this teenager in me was saying, do the right thing with her, do the right thing with Lara!” Waller-Bridge recalled. “The opportunity to have a female action figure, as we’ve discussed before… Having worked on (James) Bond and as an actor on (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), I feel like I’ve evolved into that.” . What if, with everything I’ve learned, I could take over the reins of an action franchise with a character I adore while bringing back some of the ’90s vibes?”
Phoebe Waller Bridges thoughts on the Tomb Raider reboot
Press asked Waller-Bridge if she hesitated to contribute to the current trend of remakes and reboots in Hollywood. “I feel like working in the industry is about riding the waves and leaning in,” Waller-Bridge replied. “There is room for something really dangerous. And if I can do something dangerous and exciting with Tomb Raider, I already have an audience of people who love and hopefully continue to love Lara. And that is a very unusual situation. It’s the ancient Trojan horse.”
Notably, as a writer, Waller-Bridge is no stranger to references to breasts in her works. However, there seems to have been a heated debate in the Tomb Raider writers’ room about whether Lara should have her classic, busty frame or an athletic physique consistent with the more modern games. Waller-Bridge’s position on this issue is clear. “She’s a tomb robber so she’s incredibly fit,” she said. “She constantly has to squeeze through tiny crevices in the rocks. Squeezing through a small crevice with larger breasts is a different experience than having smaller breasts.”
Tomb Raider returns to live action
The Tomb Raider video game series consists of 12 main series games and a number of spin-offs. The original game was released in 1996 and spawned eight sequels through 2008. The franchise rebooted in 2013 with a new main game that would prove to be the first in a trilogy that ended in 2018.
The franchise was first adapted into live action in the 2001 Paramount film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which was based on the early games and starred Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. Jolie reprized her role in the 2003 sequel Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. MGM and Warner Bros. rebooted the live-action series with the 2018 film Tomb Raider. The 2018 film, starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, was primarily based on the 2013 reboot game.
In January 2023, it was revealed that Amazon – the new publisher of the Tomb Raider video games – had hired Waller-Bridge to write a live-action series adaptation for Prime Video. Amazon is also reportedly developing a new Tomb Raider movie that will follow on from both the Prime Video series and the next Tomb Raider game as part of a shared universe.