Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner is in talks to star in Amazon MGM’s live-action Tomb Raider series. As everyone’s about to be reminded, though, casting the right Lara Croft is no simple task.
Set to stream on Prime Video, the TV show will follow the action-packed adventures of the iconic treasure hunter, inspired by the Tomb Raider games. Turner made headlines for testing for the role in Oct. 2024, and Deadline claimed the actor entered talks on Nov. 14.
Penned by Fleabag mastermind Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the adaptation follows the anime released on Netflix in 2024, the 2018 live-action movie starring Alicia Vikander, and Angelina Jolie’s 2000s films.
The Tomb Raider franchise has seen a recent flourish in interest; several of the original games received remasters, just a few years after the final entry in Crystal Dynamics’ trilogy that rebooted the IP for a new generation of gamers.
Lara is one of the most beloved video game characters of all time, but is unfortunately often at the center of seedy gamer debates about how important the sexualization of female characters is to storytelling (it’s not important). Though she has drawn in that basement-dwelling crowd, she’s also undeniably a feminist legend in the hobby, with fans split across several mediums. That makes casting the “right” actor a challenge.
When Jolie was tapped, the reaction painted her as a pretty face who likely couldn’t handle the tougher aspect of the roles. She fulfilled the hot adventurer quota some people care about, but those movies never got the world or Lara 100 percent down. That being said, time has been kind to Jolie’s iteration — nostalgia factor has kicked in.
Skipping ahead to Vikander’s casting for the 2018 film, most of the conversation was around the size of her breasts. It was ridiculous, but when you’re one of the only prominent female protagonists in gaming history, you’re going to be faced with gamer culture — which is mostly a vocal whiny majority online making the rest of us look bad.
In 2024, the reaction to Turner’s casting speaks to how things have evolved, but there’s still a big emphasis on getting Lara’s classic look right. This is especially true after the unnecessarily divisive — seriously, terminally online people will argue about anything — character design in Netflix’s anime.
Though a lot of the usual suspects said she looked too masculine, most of us were thirsty for the more muscular route they went for. Additionally, Hayley Atwell’s fantastic voice acting in the role has resulted in curiosity about her suitability for a live-action version, even if she’s older than what Amazon is reportedly looking for.
To be fair to detractors, Turner is not an obvious choice. She’s recognized for her striking red hair, icy blue eyes, and slender physicality — none of that is Tomb Raider-esque. Lara, on the other hand, has always been a brunette with the type of build you’d expect from a rock climber. Think calisthenics: lean and dextrous.
Ironically, people seem to have selective memory loss now that Vikander’s Tomb Raider days are over. The discourse has switched from “I can’t see enough cleavage” to “we didn’t know what we had.” The latter notion is true; the 2018 film was no masterpiece, but Vikander was in incredible athletic shape for the role and the characterization felt very Lara.
To play devil’s advocate, though, plenty of people who looked extremely different from the source material have excelled in roles. Zendaya’s MJ in the MCU Spider-Man movies went down a treat, and the famous example of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight also springs to mind.
Turner could surprise us all, pop some dark hair dye in, and hit the gym. After all, the characterization matters more than Lara’s physical traits, even if her athleticism is part of the narrative itself. Though she hasn’t tackled a role like this before, actors are supposed to have their mettle tested. And this will be a difficult-to-pass test, to say the least.