A social media user’s post initiated a lengthy public discourse, mainly due to the fact that it prodded a fictional scenario and threw the question of what would happen if Netflix acquired the Tomb Raider franchise. The tweet went viral with an AI-created image of a modern Lara Croft, leading to a great deal of fun and sarcasm from the gaming sector, thus, revealing the gamers’ concerns over the major streaming platforms getting involved with their favorite game franchises.
So, in one sense, someone just tossed a hypothetical bomb in the gaming timeline and raised a simple but horrifying question: What if Netflix had the Tomb Raider IP? The question came along with an AI image of a wish-upon-a-star Lara Croft who seems to be… let’s just say different. It is more like she is going to ask the manager of the ancient tomb instead of raiding it. The internet did not even slightly and completely held back, as anticipated. This type of chaos is what happens when you bring a gaming icon into contact with the company that made ‘Bird Box’ and a number of other shows that were cancelled after one season.
The responses of the gamers are a perfect illustration of gamer cynicism, and I must admit that they are right. One of them instantly pointed to the fact that the IP is already owned by Amazon and that the result has been… displayed. They, in an indirect way, rebuked Crystal Dynamics by calling it a “crappy woke company” and added that the output would not be much different from what Netflix could do. Ouch. That was a harsh verdict on the present-day Tomb Raider caretakers. Another gamer simply questioned, “Do not tempt them, my friend,” which indeed sounds like the most rational response in the entire debate. What kind of catastrophe would you even propose to the universe by asking such a question??
But still, the real treasure, the most valuable thing (do you see my pun?), comes from the jokes about the kind of Netflix-owned Lara Croft who would do. The player wit is here and it is nothing less than hilarious. One guy suggested she would be “taking priceless artifacts away from museums and returning them to the rightful owners.” Another suggested every assignment would come to a close with a montage of “smoking a lot of crack and getting thrown out of a Wal-Mart for trying to shoplift lip gloss.” The image that is conjured is… extravagant. Another asserted that the only thing this character would be raiding is the fridge. And the one I adore the most: the entire plot would just be her mumbling in a sleepy voice, “where the trashure at?” It is entertaining to envision a very unserious and perhaps even irresponsible Lara when she is so far from the determined adventurer character we all adore.
An odd little sub-thread even happened where people actually started to involve an AI bot called Grok to alter the original image. One user simply commanded, “give her blue hair,” and Grok just did it. After that, another person said “Finna loot dat ancient bike,” and that is exactly the sentence that is now part of reality. It is a very strange mix of tech silliness and cultural slang that perfectly mirrors the mood. It is not just criticism; it is the playful extermination of the very idea itself. They are taking the hypothetical and transforming it into the most absurd thing that could happen, which is actually the worst nightmare of a good idea.
And also, the fear that accompanies this scenario is the reality of the players who have seen what happens to the game once giant non-gaming companies take control of it. A sarcastic remark said that Netflix had already acquired the IP for Call of Duty, which is certainly not true but still shows a common fear. The fear is of dilution. It is about a platform that people usually view as making content based on algorithms and having a quick cancellation trigger, suddenly taking over a character’s journey that has survived dinosaurs, supernatural storms, and… well, very cringe-worthy dialogues in the Jolie films. The faith is not there. Gamers are closely guarding Lara Croft, even with her turbulent past, for at her core, she is a character who symbolizes power and discovery for the player. The idea of such a series being made up of snippets of a character who is turned into a bingeable, focus-grouped series with a cliffhanger that might get axed? That’s the real tomb no one wants to raid.
The reaction to this one tweet shows how strongly the players feel about the classic game franchise being taken care of. It is not only nostalgia; it is a character’s legacy investment and a fear of the legacy turning into a content factory punchline. The jokes about woke companies and raids on refrigerators act as a defense mechanism—meaning they are an indication of the perpetual disaster which might be laughed off if it happens. Ultimately, the community reaction underscored this quite loudly: gamers would prefer the Tomb Raider franchise remain in the hands of dedicated gaming companies rather than a streaming service known for quick cancellations.
