It seems like there’s a lot going on behind the scenes at Amazon and its vision for the future of Tomb Raider. Fresh from the news that the streaming and retail giant is working on a new TV series and movie with a view to building an interconnected Tomb Raider universe, a new report suggests that the company has parted with a substantial amount of cash to acquire the rights to the franchise.
As spotted in GamesRadar+, a new report from Lord of the Rings fan site Fellowship of Fans claims that Amazon has bought the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise from the Embracer Group. The site also claims that the company spent a cool $600 million on the rights package, although it isn’t entirely clear as to what this package entailed. It’s assumed that the deal will include rights to TV, movie and video games, although it could extend further into merchandise and potentially other products as part of Amazon’s wider plans for its recently reported interconnected Tomb Raider universe.
For such a sizeable amount of money though, it’d probably be a safe bet that Amazon is planning to put a lot of stock in Tomb Raider as an entire franchise. Fellowship of Fans also adds that the purchase is one to take note of, elaborating that the reported rights deal with the Embracer Group is now “Amazon’s second biggest acquisition after buying the LOTR TV rights for ‘The Rings of Power’.”
We’ll have to wait for some kind of official confirmation on this from either Amazon or the Embracer Group, but the fan site has reportedly shared previously accurate insight into Amazon’s TV work, most notably in its most recent Lord of the Rings adaptation The Rings of Power. We’ll have to wait and see whether this Tomb Raider purchase news turns out to be correct, but given Amazon’s recent involvement with the Tomb Raider IP, it’s far from being impossible.
The company is currently working on the franchise’s next game in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics and has brought on Killing Eve and Fleabag writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge to write the script and serve as an executive producer on its reported Tomb Raider TV series. In addition to this, Amazon has reportedly brought on Dimitri M. Johnson’s dj2 Entertainment to both co-executive produce the TV series and create a brand new Tomb Raider movie.
For fans of Lara Croft and her longstanding adventures as the Tomb Raider, it’s definitely an exciting time for the future of the franchise. How happy people will be with Amazon’s increasing involvement remains to be seen, however, it’s clear that there’s a lot more life in Lara’s long-running story as far as Amazon and the wider gaming community is concerned.