Tomb Raider Fans Are Wondering About Retcons to Fit the New Unified Timeline Following Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst Reveals

The announcement of some Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst has sparked retcon speculation among the franchise's fandom.

At past week's The Game Awards, Catalyst’s archetypal trailer was instantly followed by the uncover of Legacy of Atlantis, a “reimagining” of the archetypal 1996 classic. Built with Unreal Engine 5, Legacy of Atlantis is owed retired adjacent twelvemonth arsenic the franchise marks its 30th anniversary, with Catalyst acceptable to travel successful 2027.

While some, rather naturally, suggest starting astatine the opening makes consciousness fixed the anniversary, others are wondering if the announcement of the caller crippled means the squad has to spell backmost and retcon immoderate aspects of Lara Croft's communicative to marque definite everything makes consciousness successful the character's 30-year-old canon timeline.

"There are galore theories astir wherefore the reimagining of TR1 is happening. Some accidental it’s lone due to the fact that of the 30th day but I personally deliberation it’s happening due to the fact that it HAS to happen. We’re entering a caller unified timeline wherever immoderate things request to beryllium retconned and immoderate request to beryllium reimagined," suggested X/Twitter idiosyncratic Merychxrry.

"This benignant of reimagining volition apt request to hap for each mainline game, but particularly for these 4 story-heavy titles: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

"You mightiness ask, 'Why not TR2-3 first?' Well, they’re not story-heavy. As overmuch arsenic I’d emotion to spot them remade, we archetypal request to unify these 4 story-focused games. Otherwise, it would instrumentality excessively agelong to scope them, and their stories would request to beryllium retconned."

As Mery added, the bid itself apt doesn't substance — "it could beryllium 4 and 6 first, past Legends and Underworld, oregon vice-versa" — but since the assets for Legacy of Atlantis volition beryllium disposable first, "it shouldn't instrumentality excessively agelong to nutrient these games."

"That is really genius!" replied 1 commenter, portion different said: "Yes! This exactly!" "I consciousness similar LOA is simply a test, similar the [Resident Evil 2] remake was, suggested idiosyncratic else. "TR1 was the safest prime they had for a reimagining due to the fact that of its elemental story."

As crippled manager Will Kerslake precocious told GamesRadar+, Catalyst fits into the timeline after the events of Tomb Raider: Underworld. The astir caller games, known arsenic the Survivor reboot trilogy — 2013's Tomb Raider, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider, and 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider — are inactive considered arsenic portion of Croft's root story.

While the quality of the recasting was a astonishment for some, histrion Camilla Luddington — who portrayed Lara Croft successful the Survivor Trilogy — shared a bittersweet Instagram station astir her clip arsenic the pb this week, saying she loved the fans and Croft volition "forever beryllium a portion of [her]." Alix Wilton Regan volition present play Lara Croft successful some Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst.

Meanwhile, there's the upcoming Amazon TV amusement to consider. The live-action Tomb Raider Prime Video series, which volition prima Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner, volition “reinvent the franchise connected a monolithic scale” and volition interconnect “live-action tv bid and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.