Amazon Planning Marvel-Style Franchise Linking New Game, TV Series, and Movie Together

Earlier today, it was revealed that a Tomb Raider series was in development at Amazon Prime Video, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, No Time to Die) serving as the scribe and Executive Producer on the project. It’s currently unclear if she will have a starring role in the project, but if any of her previous projects are of note, then Tomb Raider will be one for the books. News of the series comes after Warner Bros. Pictures lost the rights to the franchise and the sequel to the Alicia Vilander-led reboot was canceled. Not much is currently known about the series, but it seems that Amazon and Waller-Bridge have some grandiose plans for the franchise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon has teamed up with Dmitri M. Johnson’s dj2 Entertainment on a massive rights deal that will produce a feature film and a new video game along with the series that will act as a connected universe ala Marvel Studios.

A Netflix anime series for Tomb Raider is also on the way, but details are relatively scarce on that project. Crystal Dynamics is also developing a brand new Tomb Raider game that is rumored to be revealed sometime later this year. The developer will soon kill support for Marvel’s Avengers in order to transition staff to Lara Croft’s next gaming adventure. Amazon is also set to publish the new Tomb Raider game.

The next Marvel Studios film to be released will be Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quatumania. Empire Magazine recently had a chat with director Peyton Reed about how the stakes have risen going into Quantumania. “People felt like, Oh, these are fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic Avengers movie,” Reed told the outlet. “For this third one, I said, ‘I don’t want to be the palate cleanser anymore. I want to be the big Avengers movie.'”

“I grew up a real Marvel comics nerd, and there are a handful of antagonists in the Marvel comics universe who are all-timers,” Reed continued. “Loki, obviously. Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four. And Kang the Conqueror. In conversations with Kevin Feige and Marvel, it was like, I want to put Ant-Man and Wasp up against a really formidable villain in this movie, and so we’re doing Kang the Conqueror.” 

“In the comics, Kang has dominion over time, he’s a time traveler. His situation is a little bit different in this movie, which I won’t spoil for you, but he’s someone who, [while] we live very linear lives, from childhood to death, Kang doesn’t exist that way,” the director smirked. “It struck me as interesting to take the tiniest Avengers — in some people’s minds maybe the least powerful Avengers — and put them up against the most powerful force in the multiverse.”

The studio describes the film as follows: “In the film, which officially kicks off phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. Jonathan Majors joins the adventure as Kang.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit theaters on February 17th!

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