Phoebe Waller-Bridge Is Turning An Iconic Video Game Into A New Series
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is developing a Tomb Raider series for Amazon Studios, but will not star in it.
Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is developing a Tomb Raider television series for Amazon Studios, where she recently renewed a huge overall deal to create and/or star in new projects. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star is not planning to portray adventure video game icon Lara Croft in the series, but is writing and executive producing the show. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been on contract with Amazon Studios for several years now, but no new projects have yet emerged from the reportedly massive deal.
Some of that has to do with the Indiana Jones franchise, almost certainly. Phoebe Waller-Bridge will star in the fifth movie in the Lucasfilm series alongside a returning Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, and Mads Mikkelsen as a villain inspired by former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. We previously reported that Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be playing a new character named Helena in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, apparently the titular archaeologist’s goddaughter. It does not seem like Lucasfilm’s plan is to replace Ford in the franchise (which would be a fool’s errand anyway), but perhaps the studio is looking to get the actress-writer her own spin-off.
It is interesting that Phoebe Waller-Bridge would be working on a Tomb Raider series at the moment, considering how indebted the franchise is to the action-adventure legacy of Indiana Jones. Along with writing the series, Waller-Bridge will be working with Amazon Studios’ former head of comedy and drama Ryan Andolina, and former head of overall deals Amanda Greenblatt, both of whom have also formed independent deals with the company.
The Tomb Raider franchise is no stranger to being adapted, prior to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s upcoming series. Most famously, Angelina Jolie starred as Lara Croft in two films in the early 2000s; while both were tepidly received by critics, both made solid enough box office grosses to ensure continuing Hollywood interest. Alicia Vikander took over the role in a 2018 movie that was similarly financially successful, but plans for a sequel were shut down after MGM lost the film rights to the series.
Netflix is currently producing its own animated Tomb Raider show, in which Lara Croft will be voiced by Marvel star Hayley Atwell. That series appears to be entirely separate from Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s upcoming show, which means there is potential for dueling Tomb Raider series to be streaming at the same time.
In addition to Tomb Raider, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is developing a mystery series for Amazon Prime Video, the details of which have been kept tightly under wraps (except that it is unrelated to Lara Croft). At one point, Waller-Bridge was going to star in a television adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith along with Atlanta creator/star Donald Glover, portraying a pair of married (and rival) assassins. She has since departed the series and was replaced by PEN15’s Maya Erskine.
We will be interested to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s take on Tomb Raider, given that she increasingly seems to be moving into the world of Indiana Jones and Star Wars.
