Picture: Netflix
Netflix has officially confirmed that its newest video game animation adaptation, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, will return for a second season. However, it’s not quite a proper renewal in the traditional sense.
Debuting with eight episodes on October 11th, 2024, the series drew positive reviews from critics since its release. That said, it entered the all-consuming culture war regarding some of the team’s design choices of Lara Croft. The Critical Drinker is among the chorus of voices that have added fuel to that particular fire, saying, “It’s Lara Croft for people who hate Lara Croft. I didn’t have very high hopes for a Tomb Raider adaptation made by Netflix, but wow, even I didn’t expect it to be THIS bad,” on the description for this video which has amassed over 1.5 million views.
We say the renewal is “sort of” because of how Netflix orders animation series. You may recall that we’ve known officially about a renewal for quite some time when we broke the news in June 2023 that the show had already been given a season 2 renewal and that Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education, Doctor Who) would be lending his voice to the series as Eshu. That’s because when Netflix initially ordered the show, it did it with two seasons upfront. That means production has continued on both seasons since the show was first ordered.
Netflix has provided the following synopsis of where the story is heading next:
“When adventurer Lara Croft discovers a trail of stolen African Orisha masks, she joins forces with her best friend Sam to retrieve the precious artifacts. Lara’s thrilling new adventure takes her around the globe as she delves deeper into the hidden secrets of Orisha history, dodges the machinations of a dangerous and enigmatic billionaire who wants the masks for herself, while discovering these relics contain dark secrets and a power that defies logic. Power that may, in fact, be divine.”
The news coincides with Tomb Raider as a franchise celebrating its 28th birthday.
First look at Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft S2 – Picture: Netflix
Following the series launch on Netflix, it failed to reach the Netflix global top 10s (meaning in weeks 1 and 2, it had less than 1.8M and 2M views, which it’d have needed to qualify) although the show featured in the daily top 10s in 50 countries according to FlixPatrol data. However, it dropped out of those daily top 10s in the majority of regions just a week after release.
Are you glad Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is returning for a second season on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
