Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

Premise

The series takes place after the Tomb Raider Survivor trilogy, which concluded with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and fills in the gap in the timeline, bridging the reboot trilogy to the original series of games.

Voice cast and characters

Main

Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft, a young British woman who searches caves and tombs for artifacts

Maggie Lowe voices a young Lara

Allen Maldonado as Zip, Lara's friend and a tech expert

Earl Baylon as Jonah Maiava, Lara's cheerful friend who previously joined her in several expeditions

Karen Fukuhara as Sam Nishimura (season 2; guest season 1), Lara's closest friend and an investigative reporter

O-T Fagbenle as Eshu (season 2), also known as Papa Legba, the trickster Orisha and the Lwa of crossroads who befriends Lara and Sam

Recurring

Richard Armitage as Charles Devereaux (season 1), a mercenary who aims to defeat a mysterious group known as "The Light" using the combined power of the peril stones

Nolan North as Conrad Roth (season 1), Lara's deceased mentor

Zoe Boyle as Camilla Roth, Lara's childhood friend, Conrad's daughter, and an INTERPOL agent

Roxana Ortega as Abigaile "Abby" Ortiz, Jonah's fiancée and a talented mechanic

Tricia Helfer as Mila (season 2), the leader of PITHOS, a utopian organization, who believes that she can save the world by harnessing the powers granted by the Orisha spirit masks

Marisha Ray as Fig (season 2), Mila's right-hand woman and a skilled combatant

J.B. Blanc as Kane (season 2), one of Mila's top enforcers

Guest

Mara Junot as Joslin Reyes (season 1), a friend of Lara, Jonah, and Sam

Ming-Na Wen as Eva Tong, a curator who repatriates repaired or stolen artifacts in Beijing

Rachel Rosenbloom as Elvan Kaya (season 1), a Turkish mobster in Istanbul

Jonathan Roumie as Winston (season 1), the Croft family butler

Stan Walker as Leo (season 1), Jonah's old military friend

Xanthe Huynh as Daji (season 1), a mysterious fox spirit

Ben Prendergast as Richard Croft (season 1), Lara's deceased father

Ike Amadi as Oko (season 2), the Orisha of harvest and the previous holder of an Orisha mask in Colombia

Yetide Badaki as Yemeja (season 2), the Orisha of water and the holder of an Orisha mask in Brazil

Matt Mercer as Chartreuse (season 2), the proprietor of a voodoo museum in New Orleans

Toks Olagundoye and Erica Luttrell as Taiwo and Kehinde (season 2), the twin Orisha of healing and the holders of two Orisha masks in Scotland

Olagundoye also voices Penelope Stone (season 2), Lara's former friend, who has since turned against her

Helen Sadler as Caitrín (season 2), an employee who works at the Gemini Pub in Scotland and an acquaintance of Taiwo

Elijah St. John as Babaluaye (season 2), the Orisha of disease and the holder of an Orisha mask in Cuba

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2021, it was reported that Netflix had ordered an anime-style television series based on Tomb Raider. The series order is for two seasons and was produced by Crystal Dynamics, Legendary Television, dj2 Entertainment and Tractorpants. The series was animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios and additional animation by Korea's Red Dog Animation. Tasha Huo served as showrunner and executive produced alongside Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson, Howard Bliss and Jacob Robinson. The writers' room broke in May 2021.

On October 25, 2024, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. Upon the second season renewal, it was stated that the second season will advance Lara's character, covering the topic of "a trail of stolen African Orisha masks" and will join forces with Sam, her best friend, along with possible punching of a shark, with Huo noting that the season will focus on building Lara's team. It was further stated that Huo, Johnson, Robinson, Dickinson, Hughes, Bliss, Chambers, and Hughes will remain as executive producers, while Mike Goldberg joins for the second season, and Huo continues to serve as the series writer and showrunner. In September 2025, the second season was confirmed as the final season of the series.

Casting

In September 2021, it was announced that Hayley Atwell would voice Lara Croft. Earl Baylon reprised his role as Jonah Maiava from the video game reboot trilogy. In October 2021, Allen Maldonado joined the cast as Lara's tech expert, Zip, a character who was first introduced in the 2000 game Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and had not appeared in the franchise since the 2008 game Tomb Raider: Underworld. The series also marks his first appearance in the reboot continuity. Before the series premiered, Maldonado first voiced the character for the 2022 attraction Tomb Raider: The Live Experience in Camden Market.

Characters and themes

Following the release of the first season, Matt Patches interviewed showrunner Tasha Huo for Polygon and noted that Camilla Roth's character is a new creation for the series. She told the outlet that she wanted Lara Croft's character to realize that the vision she had of her father and Camilla's father was "complicated and not perfect, and to stop looking up to them" as a model for herself, and noted Camilla's character as a "key element" in the growth of Lara's character. She also told the outlet that there were other scenes, cut from the series, which had Camilla telling more stories about her father, said she is eager to see how fans respond to the series, remarking "I am happy when anyone ships anybody. It's all fun to see. Everyone's art is fantastic. It's great!" and called Camilla different from the men Lara had "been in the shadows of before." In another interview with the same publication, Huo said that the second season would build upon the existing story. It said that it would "explore all the lessons and how those adventures actually challenge her to take those increasing steps closer to being the woman we remember from the '90s." She also noted that, while she is a proponent of self-analysis and therapy, Lara's character uses "adventure as therapy," saying it is a great way for the character to "learn how to be better."

Release

The first season of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was released on Netflix on October 10, 2024. The second and final season premiered on December 11, 2025.

Reception

The series received mostly positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "A solid animated adaptation, The Legend of Lara Croft does a fine job of adding new dimensions to the iconic hero while charting an adventure that's not quite worthy of her." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the first season a score of 65 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Ryan McCaffrey of IGN criticized the series not being compelling, having "generic and minimalist" animation, and lacking humor, asserted that villain Charles Devereaux engaged in villainy in "comic-book-esque levels of camp," and said that he would not be tuning in to a season 2. In contrast, Kayleigh Dray of The Guardian described Lara Croft "performing seemingly impossible feats in the name of archaeology" from the beginning of the series, saying her character was re-imagined in a more feminist way as compared to her original debut, retained the appeal of previous iterations, and Lara was, in her view, "the undisputed custodian of her own complicated life at long last." Sam Stone of Den of Geek said the series provides a "natural evolution for Lara and her journey" while avoiding having its story rooted to the game's events, while remaining thrilling, and having Lara's character as "more confident, self-aware, and fun-loving." Katie Doll of CBR said that the series fills in "missing gaps of Lara's life that weren't previously explored" and argues that Devereaux's character mirrors Lara while the series explores who Lara is as a person beyond a tomb raider, including her trauma, and praised Atwell's voice acting for Lara and the fluid animation in the series.

Nate Richard of Collider praised Lara's character development during the series, but said the series takes a while to get going, praised the voice acting of Atwell, Richard Armitage (as Devereaux) and noted that the relationship between Lara and Camilla Roth is a big highlight, hinting at possible romance between them, and hoped that Camille's character appears in future installments. Rendy Jones of Rogerebert.com said the animated series is the best adaptation of Lara's character, noted the "sharply-angled character designs" and said that animators preserved the "action-adventure elements from the source material" and noted that many scenes and locations flow with "artistic exhilaration," and praised the voice performance of Atwell, arguing it is enhanced by "bold imagery more akin to a psychological thriller." Lyvie Scott of Inverse said the series feels like the "most accurate on-screen portrayal" of Lara and her world and called it a "compelling watch" for long-time and new fans alike.