Alix Wilton Regan Reveals How She Landed the Role of Lara Croft and What Reunification Means

The Tomb Raider franchise has found its new Lara Croft. Actress Alix Wilton Regan will portray the iconic adventurer in the upcoming video games developed by Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Game Studios.

Her official debut will come with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, scheduled for release on February 12, 2027. The game will serve as a new interpretation of the original 1996 title, although Regan has clarified that it is neither a remake nor a traditional remaster. Instead, the project aims to recover the classic spirit of Lara Croft while pushing the character into a more modern stage of the franchise.

Regan will also appear in Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a new chapter in Lara Croft’s story that has not yet received an official release date. According to the available information, the game will be set in northern India after a mythical cataclysm unleashes ancient secrets and mysterious forces.

Regan’s journey to the role began in a way that almost feels like a scene from an adventure film. In August 2022, she was on vacation in Italy, staying in an abandoned villa high up on a mountain, when she received a call from her agent. The message was simple but massive: a script had arrived for a role that seemed made for her. The project was Tomb Raider, and the character was none other than Lara Croft.

There was one major problem: the place where she was staying had no internet connection. Still, Regan had to move fast. She prepared a self-taped audition with three scenes, including one in which she had to act as if she were jumping out of a plane and opening a parachute. To send the material, she had to get on a moped and ride down the mountain to a tiny village of around 100 people, where the only real option for internet access was a small bar.

Once there, she tried to communicate in Italian as best she could and asked to use the Wi-Fi so she could upload the videos. According to Regan, she only had to order a few drinks while she waited. But the process was far from quick. With two takes for each scene and a very limited connection, uploading the full audition took nearly five hours. It was not exactly a tomb full of traps, but the whole situation had a very Lara Croft energy: a mountain, a race against time, a tiny Italian bar, and a mission that had to be completed no matter what.

That first audition was only the beginning. The casting process lasted four months and included four rounds of auditions. Finally, in February 2023, Regan received the news during a group video call. Her reaction was intense and understandable: she screamed for several minutes inside her car and then broke down in tears.

For Regan, playing Lara is not about choosing one version of the character over another. Her approach can be summed up in one idea: “no Laras left behind.” With that, she wants to build a performance that brings together different eras of the character, from the confidence, wit, and attitude of classic Lara to the emotional depth developed in more recent entries like the Survivor trilogy.

The challenge, according to Regan, is to connect longtime fans who have followed Tomb Raider since 1996 with new audiences who may be discovering Lara Croft for the first time. Her goal is for this new version of Lara to feel familiar to those who know the character’s history, while also feeling fresh and accessible for a younger generation of players.

Legacy of Atlantis will serve as the entry point for this new era. The game will revisit elements from the first Tomb Raider, where Lara traveled through locations such as Peru, Greece, Egypt, and Atlantis, but it will reinterpret them through a different narrative and emotional lens. The intention does not seem to be to simply copy the past, but to update it without losing the character’s identity.

With these projects, Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Game Studios are aiming to reposition Lara Croft as a major figure in modern gaming. And Alix Wilton Regan’s arrival marks the beginning of a stage that seeks to balance nostalgia, evolution, and a broader vision of everything Tomb Raider has been so far.