Prime Video has officially ordered Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider series. Here is what is confirmed, what is still missing, and when to expect real updates.
The next screen life of Lara Croft is set: Prime Video ordered a live-action Tomb Raider series on 14 May 2024, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge writing and executive producing, according to Amazon and trade reports from The Hollywood Reporter. The project adapts the long-running game franchise for television, aims global scale, and brings a marquee creator with proven franchise chops after “No Time to Die” in 2021 and “Fleabag” before that. Waller-Bridge is developing the show behind the camera. She is not set to star.
This order follows a steady drumbeat since 27 January 2023, when The Hollywood Reporter first revealed Waller-Bridge was writing a Tomb Raider series for Amazon. It also slots into a broader push around the IP: Amazon Games announced on 15 December 2022 that it will publish the next Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider built on Unreal Engine 5, while Netflix launched the animated “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” on 10 October 2024 with Hayley Atwell. The orbit is busy for a reason.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Prime Video’s Tomb Raider: what is confirmed
Amazon MGM Studios formally ordered the series on 14 May 2024. Waller-Bridge serves as writer and executive producer, shepherding the adaptation with Crystal Dynamics involved on the rights side. Plot details remain locked, but the series centers on archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft in a new, serialized story designed for streaming. Trade coverage also clarified an early fan question: Waller-Bridge is not attached to play Lara, as first noted by The Hollywood Reporter in January 2023.
The creative bet aligns with Waller-Bridge’s recent franchise work. She lent story material to the James Bond film “No Time to Die” in 2021 and appeared in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in 2023. For Tomb Raider, the task is different: translate decades of game lore into a character-forward action drama that can sustain multiple seasons. That is the mandate on paper.
Tomb Raider series timeline, cast and release window: where things stand
Key dates are public. Development surfaced on 27 January 2023. The series order arrived on 14 May 2024 during Prime Video’s upfront presentation. As of autumn 2024, Amazon had not announced cast, showrunner partners beyond Waller-Bridge, filming start, or a release window. That absence is normal at this stage for a global action series.
Industry calendars were also choppy the year development began. The Writers Guild of America strike ran from 2 May to 27 September 2023, and the SAG-AFTRA strike from 14 July to 9 November 2023, per the unions. Those stoppages paused or reshuffled many writers rooms and casting pipelines across Hollywood. Expect the next meaningful updates – casting and production locales – to surface at Prime Video slate events such as May upfronts, where this series was first confirmed in 2024.
Why Lara Croft is back now: data, games, and a cross-media play
Tomb Raider remains one of gaming’s most bankable names. Crystal Dynamics reported franchise sales topping 95 million units as of 2022, a number that explains the current cross-media investment. Amazon’s 15 December 2022 publishing deal for the next Tomb Raider game underscores that strategy: television and games moving in tandem, with the developer building on Unreal Engine 5 and Amazon providing global distribution for the title.
On the screen side, Netflix broadened the audience with animation: “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” debuted on 10 October 2024, starring Hayley Atwell and bridging the timelines of the recent game trilogy. Prime Video’s live-action take sits alongside – not as a tie-in to that animated continuity – giving the brand room to reach different viewers without creative collisions.
What remains the missing piece is the face of Lara Croft. That casting will telegraph tone, scale, and the era the series chooses to inhabit. Watch for clues in production filings, location permits, and first-look stills once cameras roll. If Amazon’s order cadence in 2024 is a guide, substantial news tends to arrive in tight bursts tied to events. The signals are clear, and fans definitly know what they want to see next: a name, then a passport full of stamps, then the first leap into a tomb.