Tomb Raider followers, bless them, spend numerous time questioning how the sequence all syncs up. If the Lara Croft we noticed within the authentic ’90s video games is identical one because the rougher-around-the-edges Lara from the Survivor trilogy, then what occurred in between to have all of it make sense?
Fortunately, solutions seem on the horizon. Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has already paraded round a brand new design for Lara that comes with her post-Survivor trilogy look with throwback costuming, a dedication to the “unified” timeline. However so far as the story goes, the brand new Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is doing a little main carry.
Earlier this month, showrunner Tasha Huo instructed Polygon that her objective for the Netflix animated sequence was to chart the hole between the Survivor trilogy and basic video games. However Lara doesn’t get there by the tip of season 1, even after defeating the Gentle, discovering closure over the loss of life of Conrad Roth, re-bonding together with his daughter Camilla Roth, hugging it out with Jonah, and accepting her first pair of twin pistols. That’s as a result of Huo knew that if the present was successful there’d be extra tales to inform, and she or he didn’t need OG Lara to go well with up fairly but.
“I don’t need to simply fast-track her to changing into basic Lara as a result of it takes rather a lot to construct that lady,” the showrunner says. “So season 2 will construct upon what we’ve already seen and develop her even nearer.”
Particularly, Lara will set off on a seek for Sam, her filmmaker good friend who first appeared in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Sam was engaged on a job “abroad,” final Jonah heard from her, however a dropped cellphone name from the outdated good friend is sufficient to put Lara on excessive alert. The ending of season 1 solely teases a couple of scant particulars of the place the journey might lead her: in Sam’s condominium, Lara finds indicators of a wrestle — a damaged espresso mug, a tipped-over chair, a shattered image body — and a yarn board tying some stolen artifacts to a shady tracksuit-wearing dude with a scar and images of cocaine.
Huo wasn’t able to spoil any plot particulars, however says it’s rigorously plotted in order that Lara continues to develop and has room to enterprise on if Tomb Raider was to earn much more seasons. A prime precedence in season 2: Proceed to attract out Lara’s humorousness.
“Possibly she finds it in Sam,” Huo says. “Sam has a lighter character. There’s additionally simply much more for Lara to be taught. So in success and in these infinite seasons, we get to discover all the teachings and the way these adventures really problem her to take these rising steps nearer to being the lady we bear in mind from the ’90s.”
For Huo, that basic model of Lara can be hyper-composed, in a means that she simply isn’t on the stage of her life through which Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is about. Sure, Lara Croft would slightly raid a tomb than go to remedy — however Huo intends to assist the character discover her composure within the subsequent archeology-fueled globetrotting mission. Simply because the history-buff showrunner needs to inject Tomb Raider with tons of actual historical past and tradition specificity, she additionally needs to bang the drum for legit self-care.
“A lot of that comes from meditation, stability, having all of those messy issues inside you but nonetheless someway discovering a means via calmness and self-composure,” Huo says. “I’m a giant proponent of remedy and self-analysis as a strategy to simply develop as a human being. It’s unbelievable. And I’m glad Lara can do it. She hates remedy! So utilizing journey as remedy is a very good way for Lara to learn to be higher.”
