The casting of famous Game of Thrones redhead, Sophie Turner, as Lara Croft in Amazon Prime Video’s new Tomb Raider show was a bit eyebrow-raising, but the first release of her in costume is trying to make fans see the vision.
What’s been revealed is that this is very much a “traditional” Lara Croft look. The shorts, the guns, green the tank top, and surprisingly, even her glasses from way, way back in the original games. Amazon calls it a wardrobe test, and I had to quadruple-check that this wasn’t AI, given that AI could… definitely produce something that looks like this. It’s shared on the official Prime Video account, however. It’s legit.
Why show this now? Supposedly, filming may start as soon as tomorrow, and there may soon be leaks from the set. Might as well get ahead of that with an official shot. There’s no premiere date set yet, which is likely early 2027, given how TV production works. The series will be the long-time-coming manifestation of Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s partnership with Amazon, as she is the creator and writer of the series.
The cast has also recently announced a few high profile additions like Sigourney Weaver, who may be the show’s villain, and Jason Isaacs who will play Lara’s uncle Atlas.
Turner has clearly gotten in shape for the role, and it’s interesting to compare her to the last (and only) two live-action Tomb Raiders we’ve gotten over the years. Most famously, Angelina Jolie, who first took on the role over 25(!) years ago in 2001.
Angelina Jolie
Tomb Raider
And then the more “modern” take of Alicia Vikander, echoing the more recent “reboot” games, back in 2018.
Alicia Vikander
Tomb Raider
None of those films were especially good. The two Jolie ones reviewed disastrously though her “look” remains held up as the gold standard of live-action Lara by fans. But without question, what we’re seeing here from Turner is the most OG game-accurate rendition of all three.
I don’t even want to know what the social media reaction to this reveal will be in 2026. One of the first comments under the announcement post I read had the word “woke” in it, so prepare for that sewer to be opened up, as per usual when it comes to anything involving women, video games or both.
I don’t know what to make of the project as a whole, as we simply don’t have enough information yet, and the track record of adaptations of the series has not been great. But we are in a new era of pretty good video game adaptations (including Amazon’s own Fallout), so we can hope for the best.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.