Rihanna Pratchett hopes that Tomb Raider will become more diverse in terms of representation

Published by 31 Mar, 2023 0 likes

British writer Rihanna Pratchett, who created the scripts for Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider, hopes that the new games in the series will become more diverse in terms of representation.

She told about this in an interview with Eurogamer. According to Pratchett, the franchise is mature enough to bring up topics that were previously ignored in it.

It's not just about the components of human sexuality and racial diversity, but also about issues such as growing up and changing attitudes to life.

"It is always interesting for a good screenwriter to touch on the topics of diversity.

And I'm not just talking about love interests, but about the origin of people, their background, abilities, changes with age.

The authors want to delve into the stories and discover new facets of the characters, especially when there is an untilled field," Pratchett noted.

The writer admits, however, that representation is much better in the industry today than it was 10 years ago.

"I hope that Crystal Dynamics or another studio that will be assigned to work on the franchise will make it more diverse in terms of representation.

I am sure that Tomb Raider can withstand this, and this is the direction in which everything will go."

Earlier, the screenwriter said that she would be interested to see the aging Lara Croft, who became a mother.

"It would be interesting to see the aging Lara Croft, because Tomb Raider is one of the most famous and long-running franchises with a woman in the title role.

To see her evolution over the years, to show her hardened, seen a lot. How will she balance between the image of a mother and a "superhero"?

I'm curious about it."

Pratchett is not writing a script for the new Tomb Raider, but she managed to give the developers advice — to pay less attention to the heroine's problems with her father and better reveal the different sides of Lara Croft's character.

"I like to see her independent and enjoying what she does. After all, when we wrote the relaunch, she was on her way to becoming a tomb raider.

She was a kind of proto-tomb raider. And all the traits that you associate with the tomb raider, such as perseverance, bravery, resourcefulness, as if surfaced from her."

In an interview with Eurogamer, Pratchett also stated that she was ready to delve into the history of friendship between Lara Croft and Samantha Nishimura, actually making the heroine a representative of minorities, but the developers decided not to go down this path.

Recall that the new Tomb Raider is being created for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. It will be published by Amazon.