‘There’s room to do something dangerous’: Big talk, but ‘Tomb Raider’ is still rebooting a reboot as a shared universe

Any creative mind attached to a high-profile project is going to talk a good game, but Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s latest comments on Prime Video’s incoming Tomb Raider universe are ironically oxymoronic.

While her status as the creator of the award-winning and widely-acclaimed Fleabag is proof enough that she’s a top-tier storytelling, turning a video game property that’s already spawned three feature films – one of which is a reboot – and an animated series that exists at an entirely different rival streaming service is an altogether tougher task.

Nobody was asking for Lara Croft to be dusted off yet again, never mind as the focal point of what was ominously intoned to be a “Marvel-style universe” – which seems to be the go-to method of reinvigorating a flagging IP these days – but the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star teased what could be in store regardless during an interview with Vanity Fair.

“God, it literally felt like that teenager in me saying: Do right by her, do right by Lara! 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. 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. I feel like when you’re working in the industry, you’ve got to ride the waves and lean in. There’s room to do something really quite dangerous. 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.”

It’s always best to give anything the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, but Tomb Raider has had several chances to thrive in a live-action setting and failed to take the opportunity. Maybe it’ll work this time, although an increasingly jaded fandom will need to be sufficiently won over before we can discern whether or not that’s truly the case.