Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider Series Is Reportedly No Longer Moving Forward at Amazon

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Tomb Raider TV series for Amazon has reportedly been cancelled after years in development.

The show, based on the popular video game character Lara Croft, was first announced in 2023. Waller-Bridge, known for Fleabag, was supposed to write and produce the series. Fans were excited, and Amazon even promised that filming would begin in early 2025.

However, it looks like that won’t happen anymore.

Sources now say the project is “dead.” There’s no sign of filming starting anytime soon, and actress Sophie Turner — who was rumored to play Lara Croft — is working on other movies this year. A source said, “I hear that it is not going ahead.”

The cancellation comes after a big shake-up at Amazon Studios. Jennifer Salke, who supported the project and gave it the green light, was removed from her role last week. Salke had signed Waller-Bridge to a $20 million-a-year deal back in 2019. That deal has earned the British writer and actress around $100 million — but so far, it hasn’t led to any shows being made.

Over the past six years, Waller-Bridge has only taken on two acting roles — in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the animated film If. She was also once set to star in a new Mr. & Mrs. Smith show but left the project in 2021 and didn’t get a writing credit when it finally aired.

Despite this, Amazon renewed her deal in 2022, and the Tomb Raider series was supposed to be her big return. In 2023, Waller-Bridge said she had grown up playing Tomb Raider and was excited to create a female action hero for TV.

But behind the scenes, things weren’t going smoothly.

Reports say the show still doesn’t have a finished script, even though millions of dollars were spent trying to develop it. Waller-Bridge didn’t attend Amazon’s big “Trailblazers” event in London last October — one of the first signs the project was in trouble.

Now, Waller-Bridge’s Amazon deal has been changed. Instead of an exclusive agreement, it’s now a “first-look” deal and worth much less money.

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