Netflix really has a penchant for anime spin-offs and adaptations of existing properties. Later this year we’ll get The Witcher anime movie Nightmare Of The Wolf, last year gave us Altered Carbon: Resleeved, and the streaming service has also been behind a slew of animated Godzilla movies and the Transformers: War For Cybertron series. Now, it’s announced two upcoming anime series each piggybacking off the back of existing characters and stories from Legendary Entertainment – one following the Tomb Raiding exploits of Lara Croft, and the other taking fans back to Skull Island.
First up, Tomb Raider – this one is part of the continuity of the recent game trilogy encompassing 2013’s Tomb Raider, Rise Of The Tomb Raider, and Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. The series will take place after Shadow, exploring where Lara goes next – though there’s no word yet on whether Camilla Luddington will return to voice Croft herself.
As for Skull Island, it’s part of the ongoing big-screen Monsterverse, which is about to expand shortly with the arrival of Godzilla Vs. Kong. The series will be set around King Kong’s home, previously visited in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and will follow “a shipwrecked crew, an island of monsters, and one king to rule them all”.
Since Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ film was set in the ‘70s, this one could theoretically take place after that in the decades running up to monster-mash of Godzilla Vs. Kong – or who knows, it could be set decades before we first met this incarnation of the big ape. Not much else is known for now.
Elsewhere in Netflix’s animated fantasy output, later this year will bring the arrival of Masters Of The Universe: Revelation, an adult-oriented follow-up to the original MOTU cartoons from writer-director Kevin Smith. Clearly, animation is a key part of the streamer’s ongoing business strategy (and, very likely, also a way of producing big-name content with unlimited creative scope at a time when filming movies and shows in person is a total nightmare). Expect these new shows to drop somewhere in the next year or two.