Riding high on the rampant global success of Game of Thrones, Sophie Turner secured herself another major franchise role back in the late 2010s. Since the unfortunate end to the colossal fantasy drama, the Northampton-born British actress has been gradually adding a few smaller projects to her filmography.
Now six years removed from the conclusion of the HBO show, Turner’s primed and ready to dive into another iconic role in another much-loved franchise. Assuming that the showrunner comes through on the project, soon, Turner could join Angelina Jolie, Alicia Vikander, and Hayley Atwell as portrayers of the iconic Lara Croft.
Sansa Stark, Jean Grey, and Lara Croft
Looking at a collection of characters from previously established media for an actor to portray, you won’t find many with a better trio than what Sophie Turner will soon be able to boast. While the films fell exceedingly flat, Turner got to play Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse and the Jean-centric Dark Phoenix in 2016 and 2019.
Of course, she was also a staple of Game of Thrones during its run from 2011 to 2019. In late 2024, it emerged that she was among the frontrunners to take on the part of Lara Croft in the long-awaited Tomb Raider live-action series for Prime Video. At the time, she was said to be up against Lucy Boynton from Bohemian Rhapsody fame.
It took almost ten months for the cast to be decided for the project, but in September of this year, Turner was confirmed as the pick to play Lara Croft. The show itself has been created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who has been on an eight-figure retainer to bring the platform a major project since 2019.
Jumping into another Sprawling Franchise
As if the Fox X-Men universe and Westeros weren’t sprawling enough, Turner will now offer her take on a character who has explored just about every entertainment medium going since the 1990s. Along with the mainline video game series, Lara Croft has also featured in pachinko games, animated shows, comics, novels, tabletop RPGs, and even online slots.
Found at the online casino with a vast branded slots collection, two of the most popular are the Tomb Raider games. Lara Croft: Temples and Tombs and Lara Croft: Tomb of the Sun remain perpetual favourites. Of course, Lara’s most well-known outings beyond video gaming have been on the big screen and Netflix.
Angelina Jolie was the perfect casting for the classic-inspired Lara Croft movies in 2001 and 2003, as was Alicia Vikander for the adaptation of the more recent games in 2018’s Tomb Raider. Atwell’s quintessentially British voice was a natural fit for what will be two seasons of the Netflix animated show.
Even though these cinematic and animated show outings to date have failed to meet the story standards set by many of the games, the actors selected have done a grand job of portraying Lara Croft. So, Sophie Turner has some mighty leather boots to fill when she looks to bring Waller-Bridge’s vision of the iconic character to life.
