A report claims that Amazon may have gained access to the Tomb Raider franchise for $600 million on a leased arrangement. The beloved IP has only grown in popularity in recent years, mostly owing to Square Enix's soft reboot Tomb Raider trilogy. However, Amazon's seemingly keen interest in the franchise could mean that there's a lot more Lara Croft to come in the near future.
Recently, Amazon announced that it's planning a Tomb Raider TV series, headed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge along with a brand-new movie. While Lara Croft's story has seen its fair share of iterations in various independent forms, Amazon's ambitions may be heading in a different direction. The tech giant is also reportedly looking at building a connected Tomb Raider universe that will encompass the TV series, the movie, as well as an upcoming video game. While it's unclear how far this connected universe will go and if it will canonize any of the existing content, a new report indicates that there's more happening behind the scenes with regard to Amazon's plans with the franchise.
According to Fellowship of Fans, a site that has previously published accurate plot lines of the Rings of Power series, the Embracer Group has reportedly leased the Tomb Raider rights to Amazon for $600 million. Although it should be pointed out that the currency was not mentioned in the story. In any case, should the deal become official it would be Amazon's second-biggest commitment after acquiring the rights to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Neither Amazon nor Embracer has commented on the news, but considering the recent announcements from Amazon around Tomb Raider, the rumor does hold water. It's also worth noting that MGM canceled its Tomb Raider sequel movie in 2022 after Amazon acquired the company, so it's likely that the decision to shelve the project was partly due to Amazon's seemingly ambitious plans with the franchise.
Interestingly, the rumor comes less than a year after Embracer acquired three major Square Enix studios for $300 million. Despite shutting down the Square Enix Montreal Studio and multiple mobile game projects later on, the deal saw Embracer gaining access to a number of high-value IPs including Tomb Raider. This essentially means that if the Amazon deal turns out to be accurate, Embracer would have leased the franchise at twice the value it paid to acquire Tomb Raider and other multiple IPs from Square Enix.
Regardless, the Tomb Raider projects mark an interesting time for Amazon as the tech giant makes its big foray into media. Of course, the company isn't necessarily a stranger to ambitious movies and TV series. For instance, its massive hit The Boys is already en route to its fourth season. But the Tomb Raider franchise will be the first time the company takes on a project on the scale of a potential Marvel-like connected universe, though time will tell what the future holds for Lara Croft.
Source: Fellowship of Fans
