Revealed: Amazon’s Tomb Raider’s Exciting Cast │ Sophie Turner Takes on Lara Croft
The video game series “Tomb Raider” (formerly known as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”), which has previously been adapted into three live-action films and two animated TV series, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. As if to ring in 2026, Amazon MGM Studios has made a new announcement in regard to its planned Prime Video series adaptation. We’ve known about this series for nearly two years, but only of late have we learned which familiar and unfamiliar faces we’ll be seeing onscreen.
A Director with a Pedigree, An Established Cast
The creator, writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner (with Chad Hodge) of Amazon’s “Tomb Raider” series is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, an accomplished actor, writer, and television creator responsible for creating, writing, and starring in two comedy series: “Fleabag” (2016-19), for which she won three Emmy Awards, and the six-episode series “Crashing” (2016). She also co-wrote the most recent James Bond film, “No Time to Die” (2021), and acted in such films as “Goodbye Christopher Robin” (2017) and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (2023).
In an Amazon MGM Studios press release put out on January 6, Waller-Bridge lavished praise on her cast, which she described as “beyond my wildest dreams!” In regard to the characters, she explained: “I am thrilled to have been able to bring some personal and fan favourites to the screen while also introducing a few new rascals of our own to the mix.”
The same press release also lists the announced castings for canon and original “Tomb Raider” characters. In the former category are Martin Bobb-Semple (“Pandora,” “One of Us Is Lying”) as Lara Croft’s old friend and go-to tech expert Zip, Jason Isaacs (“The Patriot,” the “Harry Potter” series) as her uncle Atlas DeMornay, and Bill Paterson (“Comfort and Joy,” the aforementioned “Fleabag”) as the Croft family’s longtime butler Winston.
Oddly, while Waller-Bridge’s phrasing seems to insinuate that non-canon characters will be the minority, they strongly outnumber those who are already established in the “Tomb Raider” franchise. The press release’s cast list contains eight actors playing original characters, including Sasha Luss (“Anna”) as a new opponent for Lara named Sasha, Paterson Joseph (“The Other Man,” “Wonka”) as a government official named Thomas Warner, August Wittgenstein (“The Crown”) as a raider named Lukas “who shares history with Lara in more ways than one,” and sci-fi icon Sigourney Weaver as Evelyn Wallis, described as “a mysterious, high-flying woman who is keen to exploit Lara’s talents.”
Saving the Star of the Show for Last
To play the protagonist of “Tomb Raider” – the brilliant, swashbuckling archaeologist Lara Croft – the series has cast Sophie Turner. Turner, whose casting was first announced by Amazon MGM Studios back in September, is most famous for her role as Sansa Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” (2011-19). Turner was only 15 years old when she took on the role of this initially powerless noble-maiden, who would subsequently grow in ambition and royal influence over the show’s eight seasons.
With Sansa Stark, Turner created an icon of female defiance in the face of the patriarchy. In Amazon’s January 6 press release, she explained that she has always seen the heroine of “Tomb Raider” as being cut from similar feminist cloth: “She has always felt for me, very emboldened in a male dominated world. She’s a fierce female role model!”
Conclusion – A Rock-Solid Cast to Take Up “Tomb Raider”‘s Legacy
The third statement in this press release came from Peter Friedlander, the Head of Global Television at Amazon MGM Studio. He was as thrilled as Waller-Bridge about the assembled cast for their “Tomb Raider” series, saying that “these new cast members bring incredible depth and gravitas to the series. With talents like Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs joining the ensemble, we’re elevating this world in exciting new ways, and can’t wait for our global Prime Video audience to experience this next chapter of Tomb Raider.”
The premiere date of Amazon’s “Tomb Raider” series has yet to be announced; it remains to be seen whether it will be released in time for the franchise’s precise 30th anniversary, on October 25.
