The 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise is almost here, and the developers have been holding a year-long celebration to mark the occasion. The actual anniversary day is still to come, and it could bring a huge announcement regarding the future of the video game franchise. The original Tomb Raider debuted on the Sega Saturn in 1996, where it helped to launch a new gaming icon, in the form of Lara Croft.
The previous era had been defined by mascots linked to consoles, with Mario and Nintendo facing Sonic and Sega. Lara Croft spearheaded the new 3D era of gaming, by becoming the first female protagonist to achieve mainstream popularity, in the same manner as the action movie stars of the previous decade. The Tomb Raider series became a multimedia franchise, with animated shows, comic books, merchandise, and two live-action movie series to its name. The Tomb Raider video games have continued to receive new entries over the years, with it now consisting of three series that follow different iterations of Lara. The most recent Tomb Raider game was Tomb Raider: Reloaded for mobile devices, which was released in 2021.
The 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise is one of the biggest video game anniversaries of 2021. The actual date of the anniversary is October 25, 2021. While some companies have done very little with the anniversaries of some of their games (like Atlus with Persona and Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda), Crystal Dynamics has promised big things for Lara’s latest birthday.
How Crystal Dynamics Could Celebrate Tomb Raider’s 25th Anniversary
![Tomb Raider: What Day The 25th Anniversary Actually Is](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Xbox-Spent-100-Million-On-Rise-of-the-Tomb-Raider.jpg)
Crystal Dynamics has confirmed that there are big plans for Tomb Raider‘s 25th anniversary. The company has confirmed that a new Tomb Raider game is on the way, and it’s creating the Lara Croft multiverse. The next Tomb Raider game will unite the three timelines, but the details of how this will occur have yet to be revealed. Crystal Dynamics has stressed that the game might not be released for a while, but there’s a good chance more information will be revealed on the day of the anniversary.
It’s not just the Tomb Raider video games that are continuing, as the series is expanding even further into different forms of media. A Tomb Raider anime series is being produced by Legendary for Netflix. The Tomb Raider anime is set to debut in 2023, with Hayley Atwell voicing Lara Croft. There is also the second Tomb Raider reboot series movie to consider. Alicia Vikander is seemingly eager to return to the role of Lara Croft, but the pandemic has stalled the production of the movie, to the point where it’s unclear if it’s still going ahead. Tomb Raider might be twenty-five years old, but Lara Croft’s career is still going strong, and fans won’t lack for new Tomb Raider content in the years to come.
The 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise will take place on October 25, 2021.