There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Amazon’s Tomb Raider show.
The last that we reported on this show, Sophie Turner, AKA Sansa Stark, was cast to play our grizzled adventurer. Now, several behind-the-scenes moves at Amazon MGM is raising questions about the state of the show. This all starts with Jen Salke, who was head of Amazon MGM Studios. At the end of last month, Amazon announced that Salke was stepping down, but she still has a first look deal to propose any of her future projects to Amazon first before other parties.
As reported by Screenrant, Salke was interviewed by media outlet Puck. It was in this interview that it came to light that Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is producing the Tomb Raider show, has yet to send in a script. Puck reports that the show has gone through two writers rooms and already cost tens of millions in development. Salke brought Phoebe Waller-Bridge into Amazon all the way back in 2019, and she also brokered the Tomb Raider deal.
Salke is a veteran of TV production, having worked under Aaron Spelling for shows like Glee. Under Amazon, she oversaw the production of hits like The Boys and the Fallout show, but also some big flubs, like the notorious The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. She is arguably both the reason that Amazon was put on the map for streaming programming, and also the reason that it lags behind competitors like Netflix and MAX.
Puck’s report implies that there’s discord behind the scenes for the Tomb Raider show, but that may not be the case. Waller-Bridge renewed her deal to produce shows for Amazon MGM as well, though it has now been modified into the same first look deal that Salke has. In fact, Amazon also made new first look deals with their other show producers, like Lee Daniels and J.J. Abrams.
Some outlets took this as confirmation that the show has been cancelled, but neither Amazon nor Embracer Group have confirmed that this is the case. The truth is, this same level of secrecy was also present for the production of Amazon’s Fallout show and HBO’s The Last of Us show. The truth is, it’s normal for Hollywood productions to go through messy and costly production cycles, for productions that both get released and cancelled. Both bombs like Waterworld and blockbusters like Titanic go through turbulence behind the scenes, and they don’t in themselves indicate or guarantee that a production will succeed or fail.
With that said, there’s certainly a lot that Amazon MGM’s current management is going to prove in the fallout of Salke’s exit. Aside from Tomb Raider, they’ll have to salvage Rings of Power, and prove that they can get it right on James Bond 007. Truthfully, the Tomb Raider show is just another spoke in the wheel for Amazon, but it could still end up becoming the one that turns the company around.
