Any future games within the Tomb Raider franchise will unite the reboot trilogy and the original games’ timelines. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Tomb Raider series. Since the world was first introduced to Lara Croft and her globetrotting exploits, several games, film adaptations and works of literature have been released documenting the aristocratic treasure hunter.
The most recent series of games in the Tomb Raider franchise focused on a young Lara Croft, who over the course of the reboot trilogy discovered her taste for adventure. This was a change in tone from previous entries to the franchise; Up until 2013, Lara Croft was always depicted as a seasoned and confident explorer.
It has now been confirmed that any future games in the franchise will unite the two sets of timelines in Tomb Raider. Will Kerslake, the game director for Tomb Raider at Crystal Dynamics, shared some exciting updates about the future of the franchise in a new video uploaded on the official Tomb Raider YouTube page. Stating that the team at Crystal Dynamics has “big ambitions for the future of Tomb Raider,” Kerslake goes on to say that the team “envision the future of Tomb Raider in all its forms as unfolding in a time beyond these established adventures.” Crystal Dynamics plans to unify the timelines from both the games already developed by Crystal Dynamics and the previous Tomb Raider titles from Core Design. Given that there is 25 years’ worth of gaming history to go over to make any future games in the Tomb Raider series match up convincingly with its predecessors, fans are unlikely to see a new game announcement in the near future. A sentiment echoed by Kerslake, who asks that “, everybody be patient as (Crystal Dynamics) go through the development process.”
Even though a new game in the Tomb Raider timeline may be a long way off in the future, there is still plenty happening with Lara Croft to get excited about. It was recently announced that Netflix, alongside Legendary Television and dj2 Entertainment, will be releasing a brand-new animated Tomb Raider series. This series will focus on the events that follow after the reboot’s conclusion in 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is also a new mobile game releasing this year called Tomb Raider Reloaded, which was first teased by Square Enix in November.
The team at Crystal Dynamics has promised that there will be plenty for fans to be excited about throughout 2021. Starting on February 1st, the Tomb Raider 25th Anniversary celebrations will officially kick off, along with it the promise of many “unmissable surprises.”
