When Microsoft decided to pull the plug on its Perfect Dark reboot earlier this year, we weren’t the only ones to be taken by surprise, with Joanna Dark actress Alix Wilton Regan stating she was “absolutely blindsided when the project was defunded”.
In fact, Wilton Regan – who has just been announced as the new Lara Croft – said when she was told the project was cancelled, she was “as shocked, surprised, and devastated as everyone else”, adding she found out at the same time as the rest of us.
“I did not see it coming,” Wilton Regan told TheGamer. “We were basically recording bits and bobs throughout ’23. 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.”
According to the actress – who has also had roles in the likes of Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Cyberpunk 2077, to name just three – the Perfect Dark reboot had “delivered several milestones that the client was really happy with”, though she was unsure how far along The Initiative was in terms of the game’s overall development.
“It was devastating. So many people lost their jobs. An entire workforce was disbanded,” Wilton Regan continued. “There was an ecosystem of creativity and collaboration that was in place that we lost overnight. It was really difficult, really difficult for everybody.”
For a little while after its cancellation, those close to the project hoped it may survive. Back in September, it was reported the reboot could have been saved from cancellation by Take-Two. Allegedly, the publishing giant was in talks with Embracer – which owns Perfect Dark co-development studio Crystal Dynamics – and was willing to acquire the project from Microsoft. Had this deal gone through, the plan would have been for Take-Two to then fund and publish Perfect Dark itself. However, it did not.
“That was the day I was really sad because that was the day I lost hope,” Wilton Regan said. “Initially, when it made it to the press that Perfect Dark was being defunded, a lot of people reached out for comments about it, both in the media, as well as personally, friends, and professionally, colleagues.
“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.”
Wilton Regan said Perfect Dark’s shock cancellation was like nothing she had experienced in her career to date. “And I guess now that I know that it can happen, you become really frightened that the same thing could happen again,” she admitted.
While losing the role of Joanna Dark was understandably devastating for Wilton Regan, the actress was able to move her focus to other projects, notably as Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider games, which she called her “saving grace”. But, there are clearly still some scars leftover from Perfect Dark’s cancellation, and Wilton Regan admitted she is “frightened about losing Lara” like she lost Joanna.
“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,” Wilton Regan closed. “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.” Let’s all hope that doesn’t happen.
Wilton Regan is taking over the role of Lara Croft from Camilla Luddington, who played the globe-trotting Tomb Raider lead in the rebooted Survivor trilogy. Wilton Regan’s first outing as Lara will arrive next year, in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. She will then reprise the role in 2027’s Tomb Raider: Catalyst, which will take Lara to Northern India.
Last weekend, Luddington shared a farewell post to the character she had embodied for 10 years, writing: “The Survivor Trilogy was a decade of adventure I will never ever forget. I could not be prouder of what we created.”
For more from Wilton Regan, she recently spoke to our Ed about how AI is impacting the future of voice acting.
