Lara Croft’s New Voice: Alix Wilton Regan Admits Fear After Perfect Dark Collapse

Alix Wilton Regan, now the new voice of Lara Croft, is still reeling from the shock of losing her role as Joanna Dark in the cancelled Perfect Dark reboot. She describes feeling “absolutely blindsided” after the project, which had looked promising for years, was suddenly killed off earlier this year. “I did not see it coming,” she says.

Regan only learned the game was dead when the news broke to everyone else. “We were basically recording bits and bobs throughout ’23,” she told TheGamer. “We were also doing lots of performance capture for it in ’24, and we were even recording more stuff for it in ’25. To my knowledge, we were pretty far along. I’d done entire chapters of this universe.” By all accounts, the team believed major milestones had been hit, and the project was on track.

How the Perfect Dark Reboot Fell Apart Overnight

Regan, known for her work in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Cyberpunk 2077, wasn’t alone in her disbelief. “It was devastating. So many people lost their jobs. An entire workforce was disbanded,” she recalled. “There was an ecosystem of creativity and collaboration that was in place that we lost overnight. It was really difficult, really difficult for everybody.”

Behind the scenes, there was a glimmer of hope. Reports surfaced in September that publisher Take-Two tried to take over the project from Microsoft, negotiating with Embracer Group (the owner of Crystal Dynamics, Perfect Dark’s co-development studio). If successful, Take-Two would have funded and published the game. But these talks fizzled out before anything could be salvaged.

“That was the day I was really sad because that was the day I lost hope,” Regan said. For a time, media and friends reached out to her for comments, but she stayed quiet, hoping The Initiative and others could piece something together. “I couldn’t say too much about it because I knew The Initiative was in talks to keep Perfect Dark up and running in some shape or form. Possibly a slimmed-down version, possibly something slightly different. But certainly, everyone was working really hard behind the scenes to bring Perfect Dark back. And then one day, I heard from the creative director that the deal hadn’t gone through, and that really everything had fallen apart, and production was fully stopping.”

For Regan, the project’s end brought a new, difficult lesson. “Now that I know that it can happen, you become really frightened that the same thing could happen again,” she admitted.

Lara Croft: A Fresh Chapter, But With Lingering Doubts

Despite the loss, Regan wasn’t out of work for long. She had already landed her next major video game icon: Lara Croft. “I was playing Joanna over here, and I was playing Lara over here, which was wonderful and genuinely one of the most creatively exciting times of my life. And I just felt so relieved that I still had Lara, but I also felt really frightened about losing Lara. I’m still frightened of losing Lara.”

Regan takes over from Camilla Luddington, who played Croft in the Survivor trilogy for a decade. Luddington recently posted a heartfelt goodbye: “The Survivor Trilogy was a decade of adventure I will never ever forget. I could not be prouder of what we created.”

Regan’s new era begins with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis next year, and she’ll return for Tomb Raider: Catalyst in 2027, which sends Lara on an adventure to Northern India.

If past experience is any guide, Regan is bracing for the unexpected. Those creative scars from Perfect Dark’s abrupt cancellation are still there. But for now, she’s Lara.