“Tomb Raider ”TV series unveils Lara Croft's past, previews next game: 'This is a show made by fans'

"Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft" showrunner Tasha Huo tells EW the series will tackle "what created the woman we knew and loved from the ‘90s."

At the end of a long day of shepherding Lara Croft through shadowy landscapes, emotional turmoil, and (naturally) tombs, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft series showrunner Tasha Huo is just another franchise fan hoping for the best as she prepares to set the legendary video game character out on her debut TV adventure.

“There’s a desperate concern that the show is going to be too modern and not be enough of the Lara we know and love," Huo tells Entertainment Weekly of the upcoming anime series heading to Netflix later this year. "I just want the fans to know that this is the show that we’ve all been waiting for as fans. It feeds into all the stuff we love from the original games. This is a show made by fans, from top to bottom."

For lack of a better term, Huo stresses that she and her team raided the Tomb Raider archives (both literally and figuratively) like an ancient temple spelunked by Croft herself. The result is a character-driven sliver of Croft's formative years, a coming-of-age tale that bridges the gap between the Survivor trilogy of games (spanning 2013's Tomb Raider, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, and 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider) and, if Huo's vision comes across as intended, "what created the woman we knew and loved from the ‘90s" she says.

Related: Tomb Raider's Lara Croft named most iconic video game character of all time over Mario, Sonic, Pikachu

Chronicling a several-month period between Shadow's Croft origin story and the classic game series, The Legend of Lara Croft was — much like the titular character's penchant for world exploration — born from Huo's "genuine curiosity" to dig deep into a challenging mystery, particularly "what happened in those years" after Survivor stopped and the launch of 1996's Tomb Raider.

Along the way, she promises that Legend unearths "the life obstacles that made Lara go from that dark, sad, kind of traumatized person in the Survivor series into that bright light that she became in the classic era," referencing Croft's chokehold on pop culture at large throughout the late-'90s, as both a digital sex symbol brimming with assured confidence as well as a renegade feminist hero amid a sea of male-dominated movies and game franchises.

While Huo won't reveal specific plot points, she notes that the story is more than just empty fan service and will lean into things that are both surprising and familiar to longtime Croft followers.

Legend sees Croft (voiced by Hayley Atwell) abandoning her vast network of connections to embark on more solo ventures, particularly after a Chinese artifact is stolen from Croft Manor by a thief. "She has this insane network that she can just tap into at any time, which tells us she was once at a Tibetan monastery in the middle of nowhere that no one has ever heard of and made friends. How did she build that incredible network around the world, what adventures led to that?" Huo says of the questions Legend aims to answer about Croft's mysterious past, which is never explicitly outlined in the games.

Those figures include a "nice mix of people that we remembered and loved to completely new people," Huo previews, but doesn't name outright. She does, however, point to the legacy of Conrad Roth, a mentor and influence to Croft in the Survivor timeline, as playing a vital role in the TV show.

"His death in Yamatai is something she’s still dealing with and needs to figure her way through. Part of her dealing with that, she ends up falling victim to a villain that may or may not remind her of him, so that conflict will be interesting," Huo says, also promising that the show will touch on smaller — yet no less interesting to hardcore fans — details that we might've taken "for granted as they exist in the fully formed Lara" in past installments.

According to an official synopsis, Legend's Croft will also "be forced to confront her true self and decide just what kind of hero she wants to become" — an element of the show Huo likens to something every Tomb Raider game fan is familiar with: Croft dying over and over again. But, because the series can't really kill its lead character for good, Huo and her team came up with other ways to build grit and a sense of stakes for viewers.

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"We follow Lara as she’s faced with difficult obstacles. We have to make those choices as Lara in the games, and it was important to me that there was a lot of darkness that she had to experience. In the games, she would die, and die, and die, and get back up. That was so important to me, to show that kind of hero that she is, that no matter what, I’ll get to my feet," observes Huo. "You’ve got to throw her to the ground. We have to beat Lara up, because what makes her such a hero is that she gets back up, no matter what."

As for what this means for the future of the games, Huo stresses that she and her team "had lots of conversations with Crystal Dynamics, particularly early on," and confirms that they received specific direction on "what was totally open season," and what had to remain untouched as the developers charted "what the game is going to tread on" across Croft's next console outing.

"This story does take place in the canon of Lara, it’s not just this random installment. I think that’s where I’ll stop," Huo says when asked if the series hints at where Croft might be headed in the highly anticipated next installment in the main games. "Those conversations were had up front. The show is such an easy slot between the next game and where we came from."

Related: The story behind viral TikToker's hilarious Tomb Raider death videos will make you cry nostalgic tears

The phrase "where we came from" remains a core tenet in Huo's approach to the show, as Legend is a dutiful tribute to Croft's past and piecing it together to enhance the character's in-universe future fans already love. In Legend's world, even the most featherweight details become sought-after relics that contribute to the overall tapestry, ranging from a fleeting reference to how Croft learned a "vital piece of information" referenced several entries ago, or how she acquired a weapon fans know and love.

When EW asks a true fan-service question about whether the series will include the origins of Croft's farting butler, though, Huo responds with a hearty, knowing laugh: “We shall see,” she teases. Sounds like a true fan to us.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft premieres Oct. 10 on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.