Netflix has developed such a reputation for canceling original shows that news of a renewal comes as even more of a surprise, and that’s especially true of the Tomb Raider animated series a lot of people have probably forgotten about given developments elsewhere.
It’s been almost two years since Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran Hayley Atwell was announced to be voicing Lara Croft in the streaming service’s small screen spin on the iconic video game franchise, but news has been hard to come by ever since. However, What’s on Netflix has revealed that not only will Sex Education and Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa voice a brand new character named Eshu in the project, but a season 2 renewal is already on the cards.
On its own, there’s nothing inherently wrong with Netflix working on an episodic Tomb Raider adventure, except for the fact that rival platform Prime Video has already announced plans for an entire shared universe based on Lara’s ongoing antics. Alicia Vikander’s reboot had a sequel scrapped, leading to many sighs of derision when it was revealed to the world the property would be getting a “Marvel-style universe” under Amazon’s watch instead.
Do we need two competing versions of the Tomb Raider mythos existing at the same time on a pair of different streamers? Of course not, but Netflix did at least get there first. Animated rights are an entirely different animal from live-action contracts, too, so there’s a high probability it isn’t even going to be an isolated incident moving forward.