Tasha Huo, the showrunner for Netflix’s upcoming animated series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, attempted to assuage fans’ fears that the show will be a modern retconning of Lara Croft.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Those fears were expressed following the show’s first trailer where numerous fans pilloried the show. As of writing the trailer has almost 300,000 views after a month with just 10,000 likes. It has 15,000 dislikes.
A screenshot of Netflix’s Tomb Raider the Legend of Lara Croft teaser trailer via Netflix YouTube
READ: ‘Tomb Raider’ Fans Torch Netflix’s Latest Teaser Trailer For ‘Tomb Raider The Legend Of Lara Croft’
In the comments they savaged the show. One person wrote, “I see Lara is still falling repeatedly.”
Another stated, “Oh boy they left the comment section open again. haha.”
“Someone needs to teach Netflix what the definition of a teaser trailer is,” posted another.
One person questioned why Lara Croft’s iconic pistols were not present in the trailer, “‘”Where….Are….Her….Guns ???’”
A screenshot of comments on Netflix’s Tomb Raider the Legend of Lara Croft Official Teaser video
Another expressed a similar sentiment, “All I want from this is Lara wielding her signature dual pistols.”
“If you’ve never played the games, you won’t know how Iconic and mindful she is,” wrote another seemingly lampooning the trailer for its characterization of Lara Croft.
Similarly, another wrote, “Remember when she was a cool, confident and cocky seasoned explorer before they added trauma, grief, and daddy issues and made her practically insufferable?”
Another added, “What is it with Crystal/Embracer and their need for Lara to be tortured? Is this an American thing? Do your heroes always have to suffer?”
A screenshot of comments on Netflix’s Tomb Raider the Legend of Lara Croft Official Teaser video
Not only did the trailer stoke those fears, but Huo set them ablaze in an interview with IGN’s Katie Ruel, who asked her if making the series animated allows for it to be seen by younger audiences.
Huo answered, “Yeah, the hope was always that everyone could watch it. If you played this game and you have young kids, you could sit and watch it and enjoy this world with them. It’s sort of a gateway drug to playing the video games if you’re younger, but also I definitely wrote it for us, for adults, for people who played the games their whole lives and really enjoyed it. And so the themes are very adult.”
“There’s still a lot of violence, but the animation, you’re right, does allow for it to not feel as graphic, and so it does create a bigger space for more people to enjoy, which hopefully they do,” she added.
Huo then concluded, “I’m writing it for little girls as much as I’m writing it for big girls.”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Richard Armitage as Charles Devereaux in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Huo was also asked if she took any creative liberties in terms of reimagining the character for a 2024 audience.
She answered, “I really wanted to capture the Lara that, as a little girl, I really fell in love with, which was someone who takes no s**t, who really stands up for herself in every scenario against any villain — man, woman, doesn’t matter.”
“She’s going to do what she wants regardless of who’s standing in front of her … As we were writing, as were animating, it felt so important to show Lara as empowered at every step of the way. Even when she is at her low point, she is going to find that strength inside of her, and that always inspires me with her and inspired me in the show,” she explained.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Huo continued, “And then in terms of bringing it into now and away from the games, I also wanted to know more about her relationships. She’s so alone in the games. You get a sense that she has people here and there, but she must care about people.”
“And that was also, I think, part of bringing it into the now is how does this woman, who is this incredible badass and who can accomplish so much alone, how does she relate to people? How does she form friendships? And that doesn’t have to make her vulnerable because she loves other people,” she elaborated. “So exploring that sort of dichotomy of being vulnerable with friends, but still being an incredible badass.”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (L to R) Earl Baylon as Jonah Maiava and Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
It had also been previously revealed back in 2021 that Huo would attempt to unify the various Tomb Raider timelines. She said, “The team at Crystal Dynamics is hard at work unifying the timelines of Tomb Raider and we are so excited to be a part of that effort.”
She later added, “I always wondered how Lara Croft became such an epic and brilliant hero. She’s so cool, so calm under pressure, also pretty witty. So to that end, the Tomb Raider anime series from Legendary Television and Netflix will provide fans like you and me around the world with some of the first steps towards unifying the Tomb Raider timelines as we transition beyond the Survivor trilogy and start to follow Lara’s journey leading up to the first steps of that first Tomb Raider game.”
Huo added, “Now, part of that awesome task is about bringing together pieces from the different Tomb Raider eras including some of Lara’s friends and allies. That is why I am so thrilled to introduce you to two additional actors who will be joining us on this wild ride: Earl Baylon, who will be reprising his role as Jonah Maiava from the Survivor trilogy, and Allen Maldonado, who will be voicing the character of Zip from Tomb Raider Chronicles, Legend, and Underworld.”
She concluded, “Trust me when I say this is an exciting road ahead of us and I cannot wait for you to join us!”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
Huo shared more details on this in her interview with IGN and how she crafted the show to unify the timelines, “I had the whole canon in my head, because we were coming from the Survivor series, so you had to honor who [Lara Croft] was — that person that she was in those games — but move her into the person she was in the games where we all started playing — those early 90s games where she’s just a very different person. And so it was really exciting to write to Lara becoming that person.”
“‘How does someone who is like Lara from the Survivor series transform into that person? What goes on to drive her to become that person?’ [Those were] was just the best questions to have to deal with, and it was really exciting to work in more humor, which is what I really loved about her early days,” Huo said. “Getting to kind of combine those two canons has been really fun.”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
Huo also went on to note that she will attempt to provide warmth to Lara given she previously viewed her as cold given she was written men.
She said, “I think it was fun to be able to have one scene where she does an incredible feat of strength or agility or what have you — the Lara thing — and then another scene where she’s hugging a friend and is emotional with them. I think that’s something we definitely wanted to explore in terms of Lara’s womanhood.”
“Because historically she’s been written by men, so she has been kind of this cold figure, and I know she’s not like that. So that was the exciting part to see sort of behind the veil of how she is in her everyday life,” she shared.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Now, Huo is attempting to put out the flames she fanned. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she stated, “There’s a desperate concern that the show is going to be too modern and not be enough of the Lara we know and love.”
“I just want the fans to know that this is the show that we’ve all been waiting for as fans. It feeds into all the stuff we love from the original games. This is a show made by fans, from top to bottom,” she declared.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
She went on to tease what viewers might expect if they tune in, “We follow Lara as she’s faced with difficult obstacles. We have to make those choices as Lara in the games, and it was important to me that there was a lot of darkness that she had to experience. In the games, she would die, and die, and die, and get back up.”
“That was so important to me, to show that kind of hero that she is, that no matter what, I’ll get to my feet,” she said. “You’ve got to throw her to the ground. We have to beat Lara up, because what makes her such a hero is that she gets back up, no matter what.”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
She also addressed where this show takes place in Tomb Raider canon, “This story does take place in the canon of Lara, it’s not just this random installment. I think that’s where I’ll stop.”
However, she did add, “Those conversations were had up front. The show is such an easy slot between the next game and where we came from.”
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
What do you make of Huo’s new comments?
