Not surprisingly, Sophie Turner has been announced as the star of Amazon MGM Studios’ long-running Tomb Raider series. The reason for the lack of surprise is that, according to sources from November of last year, Turner was “nearly set” to star as Lara Croft.
Sophie Belinda Turner is an English actress best known for her role in Game of Thrones. She received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019. Turner later portrayed mutant Jean Grey in the May 2016 release of X-Men: Apocalypse, which received mixed reviews. She reprised her role as Jean Grey / Phoenix in the X-Men film Dark Phoenix.
According to the same rumours, Turner was selected over Lucy Boynton of Bohemian Rhapsody, but the agreement was not yet finalized. Variety now reveals that in addition to Turner’s casting, the series will start filming on January 19, 2026. For the show, which was first revealed in early 2023, given the go-ahead in May 2024, and then reportedly found its Lara in late 2024, that represents a significant advancement.
The show’s creator, writer, and executive producer is still Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a veteran of the Indiana Jones film franchise with other TV credits like Fleabag and Killing Eve. However, she will now have Chad Hodge (Wayward Pines, Good Behaviour) as a co-showrunner and executive producer.
“It’s not very often you get to make a show of this scale with a character you grew up loving,” Waller-Bridge said in a statement to the trade. “Everyone on board is wildly passionate about Lara and are all as outrageous, brave, and hilarious as she is. Get your artifacts out… Croft is coming…”
Tomb Raider began in 1996 as a groundbreaking 3D action-adventure game by British developer Core Design, which changed the protagonist from a male Indiana Jones-like character to female Lara Croft to avoid copyright issues. Angelina Jolie played the heroine in the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the 2004 sequel Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life. Alicia Vikander played the treasure hunter in the 2018 reboot.
Although a release date has not yet been set for this most recent Tomb Raider project, 2027 seems like a reasonable assumption given the start date of filming.
(Via Variety h/t Consequences of Sound)
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