Recrafting Croft: The new Tomb Raider actress explains her 'no Laras left behind' approach to gaming icon (exclusive)
Wilton Regan admits she's thought about how she wants to define her version of a character played by a long line of actresses across games, movies, and TV shows.
“It's less about distinguishing from past iterations,” she says, “and almost melding everything together.”
Wilton Regan recites her mantra: “No Laras left behind.”
“I want my Lara to be an amalgamation of everything that's come before, retaining that confident, sexy, sassy, classic Lara-ness, whilst bringing her forward into the next chapter of her life,” she explains.
The mission behind Legacy of Atlantis is “to bring the character of Lara Croft up to speed with all of the history of the Survivor trilogy, bringing Lara up to where she is in her life for this debut adventure,” Wilton Regan explains.
It’s not a remake or a remaster. That much Wilton Regan stresses.
"It will take the player on a very different emotional journey throughout Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis," she teases, "which will indulge your senses and your imagination and will then lead us nicely into Catalyst."
Details on Catalyst remain sparse, but the story is set in Northern India in the wake of a "mythical cataclysm" that unleashes "ancient secrets" and "the mysterious forces that guard them," according to an official description. It's a game about the old colliding with the new, which feels on par with Wilton Regan's approach to Croft herself.
"I very much hope that my Lara Croft will bring together fans who have been with Lara since day one in 1996," she says. "I hope that our Tomb Raiders will invite them all back into the fold whilst also appealing to modern-day audiences who perhaps haven't played the games before or perhaps were, like, 10 years old in 2018 when the last game came out."
It's a tall order. "I want to straddle those two hemispheres," she continues, "pull them together with Lara's charisma and confidence and capabilities."
