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Tomb Raider fans, bless them, spend a lot of time wondering how the series all syncs up. If the Lara Croft we saw in the original ’90s games is the same one as the rougher-around-the-edges Lara from the Survivor trilogy, then what happened in between to have it all make sense?
Luckily, answers appear on the horizon. Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has already paraded around a new design for Lara that incorporates her post-Survivor trilogy look with throwback costuming, a commitment to the “unified” timeline. But as far as the story goes, the new Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is doing some major lift.
Earlier this month, showrunner Tasha Huo told Polygon that her goal for the Netflix animated series was to chart the gap between the Survivor trilogy and classic games. But Lara doesn’t get there by the end of season 1, even after defeating the Light, finding closure over the death of Conrad Roth, re-bonding with his daughter Camilla Roth, hugging it out with Jonah, and accepting her first pair of dual pistols. That’s because Huo knew that if the show was a hit there’d be more stories to tell, and she didn’t want OG Lara to suit up quite yet.
“I don’t want to just fast-track her to becoming classic Lara because it takes a lot to build that woman,” the showrunner says. “So season 2 will build upon what we’ve already seen and grow her even closer.”
Specifically, Lara will set off on a search for Sam, her filmmaker friend who first appeared in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Sam was working on a job “overseas,” last Jonah heard from her, but a dropped phone call from the old friend is enough to put Lara on high alert. The ending of season 1 only teases a few scant details of where the adventure may lead her: in Sam’s apartment, Lara finds signs of a struggle — a broken coffee mug, a tipped-over chair, a shattered picture frame — and a yarn board tying some stolen artifacts to a shady tracksuit-wearing dude with a scar and photos of cocaine.
Huo wasn’t ready to spoil any plot details, but says it’s carefully plotted so that Lara continues to grow and has room to venture on if Tomb Raider was to earn even more seasons. A top priority in season 2: Continue to draw out Lara’s sense of humor.
“Maybe she finds it in Sam,” Huo says. “Sam has a lighter personality. There’s also just a lot more for Lara to learn. So in success and in these infinite seasons, we get to 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.”
For Huo, that classic version of Lara is also hyper-composed, in a way that she just isn’t at the stage of her life in which Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is set. Yes, Lara Croft would rather raid a tomb than go to therapy — but Huo intends to help the character find her composure in the next archeology-fueled globetrotting mission. Just as the history-buff showrunner wants to inject Tomb Raider with tons of real history and culture specificity, she also wants to bang the drum for legit self-care.
“So much of that comes from meditation, balance, having all of these messy things inside you yet still somehow finding a way through calmness and self-composure,” Huo says. “I’m a big proponent of therapy and self-analysis as a way to just grow as a human being. It’s fantastic. And I’m glad Lara can do it. She hates therapy! So using adventure as therapy is a really great way for Lara to learn how to be better.”