Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is an American animated actionadventure television series based on the Tomb Raider video game series by Crystal Dynamics, starring Hayley Atwell as the voice of Lara Croft. The series is set in the same continuity as the video game reboot trilogy that started in 2013, and takes place after the events of the 2018 game Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Tasha Huo served as showrunner with Legendary Television and DJ2 Entertainment producing, and it was animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios. The series premiered on Netflix on October 10, 2024. It was renewed for a second season in October 2024.
Ben Prendergast as Richard Croft, Lara's deceased father
Episodes
No.
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original release date
1
"A Single Step"
Cassie Urban
Tasha Huo
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara Croft goes to an ancient ruins in Chile with Conrad Roth and they find an ancient artifact box. Lara warns him that they shouldn't take it, but he does anyway, and both them fight off those telling them about the artifact's dangerous properties. Three years later, Lara returns from Peru and with the help of her friends Zip and Jonah, she plans to sell off all of the possessions in her family's manor. She continues to have flashbacks to Roth's death, which Joslin Reyes blamed her for, while Sam Nishimura stayed at her side. However, she leaves before giving a speech at the auction to sell off the possessions. In the process, she comes across a masked assailant, who steals the artifact box. While she attempts to track him down, with the help of Zip, he gets away, then takes off his mask, revealing he is Charles Devereaux. Later, he opens the box, is consumed by its power, and plans to get its counterpart in China. Lara plans to go after him and stop his evil deeds before it is too late, using her father's diary as a guide.
2
"A Set of Lies Agreed Upon"
Giselle "Faragon" R.
Tasha Huo
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara travels to China in search of the ancient ruins of Tianxi Xing along with Jonah, who helps her get a guide to the shrine, Yining. At the same time, Charles and a guide are in the same forest, also looking for the shrine. Lara later descends into a hole to find missing kids and Jonah follows her. They face a mysterious fox spirit and barely escape. Lara realizes the boxes aren't what Charles is after, but what is inside instead. She grabs the jade box, but the ruby stone isn't inside. Not long after, she finds the children, and releases a spirit after hacking at the spirit's coffin, allowing them to escape. She asks the fox spirit, Daji to save them and she obliges, later bowing to Lara, as they all are able to escape. Jonah urges Lara to let this go and stop going on this quest. The episode ends with a tidal wave about to overtake her boat.
3
"Living Midnight"
Cassie Urban
Tasha Huo
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara gets separated from Jonah and is almost drowned in the turbulent waters. She somehow survives but believes that Jonah is dead. Not long after, she fights with Charles, throwing him the jade box. She tells Zip that Jonah is dead. Now in Beijing, Lara calls Sam, but her call is interrupted when Zip shows up, who wants to help her. They enter the storeroom of an international guild that restores and repairs artifacts, then repatriates them. She gives them a dagger so she can get information on the peril stones. Lara heads to Istanbul to find one of the stones, learning it is held by a mobster in the city named Elvan Kaya, and meets Charles again, where he claims to be a misunderstood hero. Some time later, she breaks into Kaya's compound in an attempt to take one of the stones. She gets the stone, but it takes control of her, causing her to kill people gruesomely. Lara traps the stone and Kaya tells her to get the stone away from her, declaring the stone will curse her. Jonah reappears, now controlled/allied with Charles, and steals the stone from her, while Charles merges the two stones together.
4
"Big Lies, Small Secrets"
Giselle "Faragon" R.
Tasha Huo and Troy Dangerfield
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Zip wakes up Lara, who remembers that Charles combined the stones. Lara implies that she wants to go on the quest to stop Charles alone and Zip objects. She travels to Paris and makes her way to Camilla Roth's apartment. Zip tells her about the stone lockbox. Camilla is surprised to see Lara there, but tells her all she knows about "The Light." Lara convinces Camilla to go to the church of Charles's father, as part of a little adventure. Both begin bonding again, after she loses connection with Zip when she travels too far underground into the catacombs. They later separate, with Lara's claim they will cover more ground, while Camilla believes that Lara is just like her father. Lara learns that the Knights Templar who survives became "The Light." She is attacked by a monster and hallucinates horrors, until she is brought out of it, thanks to Camila. They have a heartfelt embrace. In Iran, Charles follows a mind-controlled Jonah forward.
5
"Whanaungatanga"
Cassie Urban
Shakira Pressley
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara meets a man named "Captain" (also known as Leo) who she met five years before in Oahu. Leo flies the airplane as he drops out a crate, she thanks him for a ride, and jumps out of the airplane. She gets to the ground and rides a motorcycle which was dropped from the airplane to catch the train where Charles and mind-controlled Jonah are. Following this, she rides her motorcycle as the town crumbles around her, and makes her way onto the train. She finds that everyone there is controlled by one of the stones. She comes across Charles, saying it isn't right to destroy everything, while Charles declares he will do anything to stop The Light. Jonah attacks her, but she survives and saves him, while everyone else on the train is mind controlled. Later on, they meet back at Lara's family mansion to read more books. She figures out that Charles talked about the Battle of Zhuolu not "Zulu." Camilla notes that the leaders of The Light are about to make a "glorious return."
6
"The Spirit Way"
Giselle "Faragon" R.
Shakira Pressley
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara travels with Jonah through a rainforest, before they can reach the ancient battle site. When they get there, they realize it has been turned into a theme park. She learns from one of the guides that no one knows where the battle took place. She reluctantly watches a film at the site, at Jonah's urging, and she learns about where the final stone is held. They later go in a plane to the possible site where the stone is being held, with Jonah saying the ghosts of Roth and her dad are haunting her. They find the ancient ruins and activate a magical process which results in them being transported to Mongolia. Lara makes her way across part of the desert to another ruins, is injured in the process, but finds a temple. Lara warns Charles to not combine all four stones together, but he does so, and he throws her off a cliff. Injured, she barely makes her way up the cliff, thinking of Camilla's words, but collapses. She and Jonah are saved by two mysterious people.
7
"Yinyang"
Cassie Urban
Tasha Huo
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Lara thinks back to moments of loss in her life, from the death of Roth and her dad, and Camilla leaving. She even thinks that Charles is choking her, but she pulled out of this by the fox spirit Daji, believing she isn't strong enough. Lara asks for Jonah's help, and Jonah accepts after she apologizes. Jonah and Lara visit an old marine research lab. They find Camilla there with some agents, who tell them about The Light's plans there. Charles prepares to execute the members of The Light, Lara, Jonah, Camilla, and her fellow agents bust in. Lara fights Charles, who transforms into a new body after he ingests all the stones, and is cornered by him. Camilla and Lara cut down the monster. Lara begins to attack Camilla, but she is able to break out of it, and Charles is electrocuted. He is taken away in handcuffs. Lara goes off to Kunlun Mountain with Jonah.
8
"A Journey of a Thousand Miles"
Giselle "Faragon" R.
Tasha Huo
October 10, 2024 (2024-10-10)
Jonah and Lara make their way to Kunlun Mountain. She makes her way to an underwater cavern and Jonah joins her, with both amazed by what they find, as they journey to Nu'wa. They go into a cave and Lara is unsure how to proceed, once they are inside part of the cave, at first. Jonah barely makes it across a bridge with his life. Lara tries to figure out what objects to use to reset the balance of the world, to connect all the elements. Lara goes to restore the world's balance. She enters another dimension and enters a floating temple, and the spirit-god combines all the stones together. Following this, she wakes up and Jonah is grateful she saved the world. They fight a T-Rex, defeat it, and barely escape. Lara attends the wedding of Jonah and his fiancée, Abby. Sam calls Lara during the wedding party and she gets suspicious. She finds Sam's apartment deserted and plans to go find her.
Production
Development
In January 2021, it was reported that Netflix had ordered an anime-style television series based on Tomb Raider.[1] The initial order is for two seasons and was produced by Crystal Dynamics, Legendary Television, DJ2 Entertainment and Tractorpants.[7][8] The series was animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios and additional animation by Korea's Red Dog Animation .[9] Tasha Huo served as showrunner and executive produced alongside Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson, Howard Bliss and Jacob Robinson.[1] The writers' room broke in May 2021.[8]
On October 25, 2024, Netflix renewed the series for a second season.[10] In a blogpost announcing the renewal, it was stated that the second season will advance Lara's character, covering the topic of "trail of stolen African Orisha masks" and join forces with Sam, her best friend, along with possible punching of a shark, with Huo saying that the season will focus on building Lara's team. It was further stated that Huo, Johnson, Robinson, Dickenson, Hughes, Gliss, Chambers, and Hughes will remain executive producers, and Huo will be a series writer.[3]
Casting
In September 2021, it was announced that Hayley Atwell would voice Lara Croft.[11] Earl Baylon, who voiced Jonah Maiava in the video game reboot trilogy, reprises his role. In October 2021, Allen Maldonado joined the cast as Lara's tech expert, Zip, a character who was first introduced in the 2000 game Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and had not appeared in the franchise since the 2008 game Tomb Raider: Underworld. The series also marks his first appearance in the reboot continuity.[2]
Characters and themes
Following the release of the first season, Matt Patches interviewed showrunner Tasha Huo for Polygon and noted that Camilla Roth's character is a new creation for the series. She told the outlet that she wanted Lara Croft's character to realize that the vision she had of her father and Camilla's father was "complicated and not perfect, and to stop looking up to them" as a model for herself, and noted Camilla's character as a "key element" in the growth of Lara's character. She also told the outlet that there were other scenes, cut from the series, which had Camilla telling more stories about her father, said she is eager to see how fans respond to the series, remarking "I am happy when anyone ships anybody. It's all fun to see. Everyone's art is fantastic. It's great!" and called Camilla different from the men Lara had " been in the shadows of before."[12] In another interview with the same publication, Huo said that the second season would build upon the existing story and said that it would "explore all the lessons and how those adventures actually challenge her to take those increasing steps closer to being the woman we remember from the '90s." She also noted that while she is a proponent of self-analysis and therapy, she noted that Lara's character uses "adventure as therapy," saying it is a great way for the character to "learn how to be better."[13]
Release
The first season of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was released on Netflix on October 10, 2024.[14]
Reception
The series received mostly positive reviews from critics.[15][10] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A solid animated adaptation, The Legend of Lara Croft does a fine job of adding new dimensions to the iconic hero while chartering an adventure that's not quite worthy of her."[16]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the first season a score of 65 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]
Ryan Mcccaffrey of IGN criticized the series not being compelling, having "generic and minimalist" animation, and lacking humor, asserted that villain Charles Devereaux engaged in villany in "comic-book-esque levels of camp," and said that he would not be tuning into a season 2.[18] In contrast, Kayleigh Dray of The Guardian described Lara Croft "performing seemingly impossible feats in the name of archaeology" from the beginning of the series, saying her character was re-imagined in a more feminist way as compared to her original debut, retained the appeal of previous iterations, and Lara was, in her view, "the undisputed custodian of her own complicated life at long last."[19] Sam Stone of Den of Geek said the series provides a "natural evolution for Lara and her journey" while avoiding having its story rooted to the game's events, while remaining thrilling, and having Lara's character as "more confident, self-aware, and fun-loving."[20] Katie Doll of CBR said that the series fills in "missing gaps of Lara's life that weren't previously explored" and argues that Charles Devereaux's character mirrors Lara while the series explores who Lara is as a person beyond a tomb raider, including her trauma, and praised Atwell's voice acting for Lara and the fluid animation in the series.[21]
Nate Richard of Collider praised Lara's character development during the series, but said the series takes a while to get going, praised the voice acting of Atwell, Richard Armitage (as Charles Devereaux) and noted that the relationship between Lara and Camilla Roth is a big highlight, hinting at possible romance between them, and hoped that Camille's character appears in future installments.[22] Rendy Jones of Rogerebert.com said the animated series is the best adaptation of Lara's character, noted the "sharply-angled character designs" and said that animators preserved the "action-adventure elements from the source material" and noted that many scenes and locations flow with "artistic exhilaration," and praised the voice performance of Atwell, arguing it is enhanced by "bold imagery more akin to a psychological thriller."[23] Lyvie Scott of Inverse said the series feels like the "most accurate on-screen portrayal" of Lara and her world and called it a "compelling watch" for long-time and new fans alike.[24]
Manuel Betancourt of The A.V. Club called the series enjoyable because it sticks with the basics of a Tomb Raider tale, while anchoring Lara's emotional journey in her grief following Roth's death, along with entertaining sequences, allowing her to "showcase her wit, knowledge, and many badass moves."[25] Lauren Rouse of Game Rant said the series provides a new look at Lara's story, including her vulnerabilities, praises Atwell's voice acting, calls Charles Devereaux and "excellent foil to Lara's character," and lauds the animation style which harkens back to "classic cartoons" in some ways.[26] In another review, Rouse said that the series is "depicted in an anime style" and compared it to other video game adaptations which have been animated, such as Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Dota: Dragon's Blood, Arcane: League of Legends, and Dragon Age: Absolution.[27]
Other reviewers gave a mixed reception. Willa Rowe of Kotaku criticized the pacing, plot, and characters, like Devereaux, but praised the performance of Lara Croft as "stunning" and calling her the "saving grace" of the series, and compared the series negatively to Castlevania, and hoped the second season would be better.[28] This contrasted with Marcelo Leite of ScreenRant who praised the animation as echoing the Tomb Raider games, and captures what gameplay is like.[29] Matt Patches of Polygon noted that the series reframed "Conrad Roth's legacy in dramatic fashion," called the scene between Camilla Roth and Lara Croft to possibly be "the steamiest scene in all of Tomb Raider" and asserted that the relationship between both characters either has the vibes of Korrasami (Korra and Asami Sato from The Legend of Korra) or a "deep friendship."[12]
Stanley Hanley, in an article for The Gamer, asserted that the franchise should "stop" trying to create Tomb Raider lore, and stated that Lara's theft of a cursed artifact "sort of delivers consequences to her actions" but criticized it for feeling like viewers should be "sad because she stole something."[30] This differed from Renaldo Matadeen of CBR who noted that the Tomb Raider franchise "didn't acknowledge the damaging nature of European colonialism," argued that the series begins with Lara Croft giving a "white plunder vibe," but ultimately wants to hold "herself accountable in a way that shows growth," differing from Indiana Jones, The Goonies, and National Treasure, even not wanting the relics in her mansion, and saying that the second season it set up for Lara to "explore more cultures," broadening her worldview. However, he notes that although Lara stops her father's relics from being auctioned, she gives them to a museum, even though museums also "contribute to the theft of indigenous artifacts" and points to a scene in Black Panther, but praised the series for having Lara's character self-reflect and challenge "her reasons for treasure hunting."[31]
