Even famed adventurers hit a wall sometimes, and it seems this might be the case for Amazon’s live-action Tomb Raider TV show, which has apparently been killed off by the platform after years stuck in development hell.
This unfortunate news comes from the Daily Mail’s sources, which state that the long-awaited, big-budget series helmed by Fleabag and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has hit a snag it might not recover from, saying that the idea of bringing the iconic explorer Lara Croft to the small screen is “dead”, a stark departure from a previous statement by a Prime Video executive that the series would be filmed “in early 2025”.
As a further wrench in the works, Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner – who was previously the frontrunner to embody the titular character – was “busy with other films for much of [the] year”, with additional sources saying that these plans are “not going ahead”.
According to the Daily Mail, the project was “dealt a serious blow” when the head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, who previously greenlit the show and was set to oversee the project, was “booted” from her position last week. In a future report by Puck, Salke provided “a brutal update” after she left the position, stating that Waller-Bridge had not produced a script since signing the US$20 million-a-year deal in 2019, adding that the series has “gone through two writers’ rooms and tens of millions of dollars in development costs. There’s still no script.”
Amazon announced the live-action adaptation back in January 2023, revealing that Waller-Bridge was in place to write and executive produce the series, who teased at the time that she had plans for it to be “dangerous and exciting”, opening up about her love for the games growing up. Further updates to the show’s development came late last year, with reports of Turner being eyed for its lead role, beating out other reported contenders like Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate), and Emma Mackey (Sex Education).
This latest roadblock seems to have derailed Waller-Bridge’s ambitious plans, with the future of the Tomb Raider series now up in the air, as both Prime Video and representatives for Waller-Bridge have declined to comment on the state of the show.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Natalie
