When The Legend Of Lara Croft Takes Place In The Tomb Raider Timeline

Summary The Legend of Lara Croft is set after the Survivor Trilogy, and can bridge the Survivor Trilogy and the Original Tomb Raider games.

Lara Croft's character in Netflix's series is based on the successful Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics video game reboot trilogy.

Fans can expect to see Hayley Atwell's Lara Croft when the series premieres on Netflix in 2024.

Based on the long-running video game series, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is an animated action-adventure series that follows the franchise's titular character at a new point in her archeology career. A highly intelligent British archaeologist with a penchant for climbing and gun-toting, Lara Croft travels the world in search of lost artifacts — a path that often sees her entering dangerous ruins and coming face-to-face with unsavory characters. In the wake of 1996's Tomb Raider, the game spawned more video game installments as well as comics, novels, and live-action film adaptations.

In the Tomb Raider games, players explore far-flung locations, solve cryptic puzzles, and avoid hostile traps and enemies — all elements that serve as a backbone for the Lara Croft-led movie adaptations too. After a strong run of annual releases in the '90s and early 2000s, the Tomb Raider franchise went dark. In 2013, video game publisher Square Enix revived the series with Tomb Raider, a series reboot of Lara Croft's origin story. With nearly 30 years of lore, the Tomb Raider franchise's timeline is complex, prompting fans to wonder when The Legend of Lara Croft is set.

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The Legend Of Lara Croft Takes Place After Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

Netflix's Lara Croft Is The Same Character From The Rebooted Survivor Trilogy

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Early stills from Netflix's Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft portray a main character who looks a lot like the Lara of Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics' rebooted video game trilogy. Given the massive success of 2013's trilogy-launching Tomb Raider, which has gone on to become the best-selling Tomb Raider game of all time, it's no surprise that the animated series is exploring more of this Lara Croft's adventures. The second entry in the rebooted Tomb Raider game series, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, is set a year after the 2013 game.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is set three years after the harrowing events of Rise of the Tomb Raider...

The third game in Tomb Raider's Survivor trilogy, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, is set three years after the harrowing events of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider saw newcomer Lara Croft (Camilla Luddington) becoming a hardened survivor; Rise of the Tomb Raider focused on Lara's post-traumatic stress; and, finally, Shadow of the Tomb Raider centers on a more confident and accomplished Lara Croft as she thwarts an apocalyptic event. According to Netflix, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will take place an unspecified amount of time after the events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Based on Lara Croft's in-universe birthday in the Survivor trilogy — February 14, 1992 — she's 21 in Tomb Raider, which is set in 2013.

Survivor Trilogy Game Release Year In-Universe Year Evidence of Year Tomb Raider 2013 2013 Stated by the video game's developers. Rise of the Tomb Raider 2015 2015 A newspaper dated 2015 appears in the game's opening prologue. Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018 2018 A headstone in Cozumel reads 2018.

The Legend Of Lara Croft Will Bridge The Survivor Trilogy & The Original Games

The Tomb Raider Franchise Acknowledges 3 Distinct Timelines

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As of 2024, the Tomb Raider franchise is composed of a whopping 20 video games. That said, there are three different Tomb Raider timelines that players can explore: the Original Saga Timeline, the Legend of Tomb Raider Timeline, and the Survivor Trilogy Timeline. Going in chronological order, the Original Saga canon features Tomb Raider (1996)​​​​​​​, Tomb Raider: The Curse of the Sword (2001)​​​​​​​, Tomb Raider II (1997)​​​​​​​, Tomb Raider III (1998)​​​​​​​, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999), Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000)​​​​​​​, and, finally, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003).

The Survivor Trilogy (2013–18) and the Original Saga (1996–2003) are viewed as separate timelines...

The Legend saga is composed of just three titles: Tomb Raider Anniversary (2007)​​​​​​​, which is a remake of the 1996 classic, Tomb Raider: Legend (2006), and Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008). While the Survivor Trilogy (2013–18) and the Original Saga (1996–2003) are viewed as separate timelines, Netflix's animated series can be viewed as a bridge between the two projects. Voiced by Hayley Atwell, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft's protagonist is older than the Survivor trilogy Lara, but still on her way to becoming the titular Tomb Raider of the original saga.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on October 10, 2024.