We might still be waiting a while for Crystal Dynamics’ next Lara Croft adventure, but that hasn’t stopped some of the franchise’s most hardcore fans from doing their best to tidy up some of the franchise’s “loose ends” with Tomb Raider: The Myth of El Hawa, a fan animated movie soon to debut on YouTube that will address a gap in the narrative formed between the fourth franchise entry, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, and the sixth, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.
The press release, issued about the film reads:
The enthralling new animated film explains what happened between the franchise’s fourth instalment, Tomb Rader: The Last Reveation, and the sixth, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The final scenes of The Last Revelation saw heroine Lara Croft trapped under the ruins of a temple, leaving her fate uncertain. With the fifth instalment not adding much further to the storyline, the sixth edition, The Angel of Darkness, was a captivating tale. However, due to time pressures, a lot of information and scenes had to be cut, including what happened to Lara under the ruins in Tomb Raider 4 and how she was eventually able to escape.
This gap in the narrative, outlined above was what prompted a team of fans to actively find ways to plug the gaps. Eventually, they enlisted the services of Murti Schofield, who actually wrote Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, with the video narrated by Jonell Elliott, Lara Croft’s voice actress in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The team of fans itself is helmed by Tomb Raider super-fan Ash Kaprielov before Tina Ljubenkov worked as an Assistant Director, and artwork was created by Jasmine Steiner. The film’s music and mastering was completed by another fan Dean Kopri who had previously created a lot of celebrated Tomb Raider-inspired tracks.
Speaking about the premiere Kaprielov said,
Tomb Raider: The Myth of El Hawa is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication from some of the biggest Tomb Raider fans in the community and those responsible for some of the most popular instalments of the series.
I’m incredibly excited to finally be putting the animation out into the world, and I’m sure that fellow fans are going to love what we have created.
The film airs today at the Derby Quad Theatre, Derby being the location where the early games were created, with the premiere of the film being one part of a larger celebration by fans of the Tomb Raider franchise and the 20th anniversary of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Fans of the franchise who are unable to attend the event though will still have a chance to check out the film, with Tomb Raider: The Myth of El Hawa debuting on YouTube in a matter of days, October 21, 2022 where all fans will have the opportunity to check out this fascinating bridging chapter in the Tomb Raider narrative.
