Raiders Of The Lost Arc

Lara Croft is back globetrotting, anime style, in new Netflix series Tomb Raider: The Legend Of Lara Croft

- TARA BENNETT

YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIT down… We’ve found proof that obsessive gaming can be a very good thing. A few years ago, screenwriter Tasha Huo (The Witcher: Blood Origin) was playing the latest Lara Croft videogame, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider (2018).

She was so impressed with the gameplay, story and graphics that she turned to social media to “relentlessly” post about her progress. A producer friend saw this and reached out for a meeting, asking her to pitch her take for a Netflix anime series centred on the character of Lara Croft.

While Crystal Dynamics’ British archaeologist has been an action-adventure gaming icon for almost 30 years, there’s always been an issue with how much story you can cram into videogame cut-scenes and game play when she’s continually shooting, jumping, rapelling and running.

Meanwhile, the movie adaptations have just been middling to downright bad, leaving a lot of juicy Croft story left withering on the vine.

Huo knew that and pitched to Netflix a very character-driven Croft series that explores, as she tells Red Alert, “Who she is, why she is, and what makes her tick? All the sorts of things that are left lingering when you’re playing the game.”