According to a recent rum0r, Embracer Group has leased the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise to Amazon in a $600 million deal. The deal was leaked by the website Fellowship of Fans, which had accurately predicted several plot points from Amazon’s flagship Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power months before the show’s premiere. If true, Amazon’s acquisition would be its second-largest purchase yet, only dwarfed by its purchase for the television rights for Rings of Power. It remains unclear whether this deal extends beyond just film and television rights and into games and merchandise as well, although considering Embracer bought the rights to the whole Tomb Raider IP from Square Enix for $300 million last year, for double the original selling price it’s very likely Amazon would be paying for it all.
These rumors come at the head of news that Amazon has major plans for the Tomb Raider franchise. According to Video Games Chronicle, Amazon has plans to turn Tomb Raider into “Marvel-like franchise” with interconnected film. television and gaming releases. This would also track with a report from earlier in 2022 that MGM, the publisher of 2018’s Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander, had lost the rights to the film series after being acquired by Amazon.
Amazon has publicly announced other major plans for the Tomb Raider franchise, such as its decision to publish the next Tomb Raider game, which has no confirmed title or release date as of now. A few days ago, Amazon also announced a new Tomb Raider television series will be produced for Amazon Prime, which will be written by Fleabag and upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.