Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green hired to direct Tomb Raider sequel

Showrunner of HBO's critically acclaimed Lovecraft Country to write and direct Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider sequel

Peter Lennon
5th February 2021
Image Credit: IMDb
After 2018’s Tomb Raider reboot did not meet the box office expectations of Warner Bros., hope for a potential sequel with Alicia Vikander’s Lara Croft were up in the air. Now, following some studio juggling and an initial sign on from director Ben Wheatley, the classic video game series sequel has found its writer and director in Lovecraft Country showrunner Misha Green.

While the sequel will mark the feature length debut for Misha Green, the writer-director’s talents have been well-demonstrated in HBO’s Lovecraft Country, a 10-episode series adaptation of the eponymous novel. The series mixed creature feature action, fantasy adventure, and mystical intrigue in its story of Black oppression in Jim Crowe America. While the Lara Croft character is infamously a white aristocrat by birth, if not always in practice, Lovecraft Country’s tone and genre-blending seem like the perfect fit for the fan-favourite game series.

Taking influence from both Rise and Shadow should come as no surprise as they are the follow-up games to Tomb Raider (2013), which the 2018 film took direct inspiration from.

Along with Misha Green, Alicia Vikander is returning to star as Lara Croft in what will be her sophomore outing as the iconic character. Taking inspiration from the grittier and more realistic Survivor Trilogy, which acted as a prequel trilogy for how Lara Croft became the person depicted in the original 1996 hit game, Tomb Raider brought Croft to the island of Yamatai in search of her father. The film left Lara purchasing her signature dual-pistols and a quest to take down the shadow operation Trinity.

Image: IMDb

Although director Roar Uthaug brought some of Tomb Raider’s (2013) settings and moments to life, the studio-desired PG-13 age rating prevented it from delving into the Survivor Trilogy’s grittier and more visceral moments. Misha Green, however, took to Twitter shortly after the announcement to express her excitement for the project label Tomb Raider: Legend (2006), Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) as her favourite games in the series. This would be followed by a series of emojis that incorporated elements of both the more outlandish classic series and the grittier prequel trilogy.

If this is anything to go by, it is that, much like the game series’ developers Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix, Green plans to meld both versions of the character together to reconcile all parts of the fanbase. Taking influence from both Rise and Shadow should come as no surprise as they are the follow-up games to Tomb Raider (2013), which the 2018 film took direct inspiration from.

As it is the series’ 25th anniversary, announcements were in no shortage as an animated Tomb Raider series, which will serve as a direct continuation of where the character left off in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was announced by Netflix.

A release date has not yet been announced.

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AUTHOR: Peter Lennon
English Literature undergraduate. Although I primarily write for the Courier's Film section, I do love helping out in the Televsion and Gaming sections as well. I also organise and host livestreams/radio shows as FilmSoc's inaugural Head of Radio. Twitter: @PeterLennon79

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