Video game actors ‘deserve to stand up and be counted’, says lead of upcoming Tomb Raider games

The actor set to play Lara Croft in the next two Tomb Raider games says video game performers deserve to be recognised for their work.

In an conversation with GamesRadar, Alix Wilton Regan – whose previous video game roles include the female Inquisitor in Dragon Age Inquisition, Aya in Assassin’s Creed Origins and Joanna Dark in the now-cancelled Perfect Dark reboot – said game actors should get the credit they deserve for the work they put into their performances.

“Video game acting is at times hard, demanding and also challenging,”  Regan said. “It’s also joyous, and it’s filled with – literally – blood and sweat and tears, especially if you’re on the [performance capture] stage.

“So video game actors, they deserve their flowers, because we help pull the audience in to elevate the writing, the animation, the direction, the tone.”

Regan then credited the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 for their role in inspiring other performers to recognise their importance to players.

“I give a massive shout-out here to the Baldur’s Gate 3 crew, because they were the ones who made all the other video game actors sit up and take note and realise ‘yeah, actually, we are loved, our work does have value, and we too deserve to stand up and be counted’,” she explained.

“I’ve literally said this to Jennifer English’s face, or Neil Newbon. I’ve been up to Ben Starr and I’m like ‘you changed the game’.”

Regan is set to be the latest actor to portray Lara Croft in the two upcoming Tomb Raider games. The first, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, is a “reimagining” of the original Tomb Raider, promising redesigned visual and modern gameplay, set to release in 2026.

The second game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, is an entirely new adventure which will be released in 2027 and will see Lara exploring Northern India.

Last year, in an interview with VGC, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 star Aliona Baranova  who also served as a motion capture director on Baldur’s Gate 3 – called on The Game Awards to introduce more performance categories, including one that would celebrate motion capture artists.

“We need to do it because there are these fantastic mocap performances going on,” Baranova explained. “It’s been decades of actors going in, doing the mocap, and then someone else’s voice is popped on top, and those mocap performers just disappear. I forgot that. Nobody knows about them.”

“The audience doesn’t know enough about this because there’s not enough attention on it,” she added. “If we had an award category for mocap specifically, then studios would be encouraged to release that behind-the-scenes footage because people are desperate for it. Studios keep that a bit quiet because it gives away details on how they made the game.”