Amazon MGM Studios has officially started production on its upcoming Prime Tomb Raider live-action series. To mark the occasion, Amazon has released a first-look image of the main star Sophie Turner as a game-authentic Lara Croft. Visually, at least, it’s already ticking some familiar boxes — but hardcore fans are still worried about one particular thing.
The series stars Turner, a long-time fan of the series, as Lara Croft, complete with the classic round sunglasses. “She has always felt for me, very emboldened in a male-dominated world. She’s a fierce female role model!” she said in the announcement post. Her adventure is backed by a star-studded cast, including:
- Martin Bobb-Semple: Zip, Lara’s tech support and close friend.
- Jason Isaacs: Atlas DeMornay, Lara’s uncle.
- Bill Paterson: Winston, the Croft family butler.
- Jack Bannon: Gerry, Lara’s personal pilot.
- John Heffernan: David, an exhausted government official who got tangled up in Lara’s antics.
- Celia Imrie: Francine, the Head of Advancement at the British Museum.
- Paterson Joseph: Thomas Warner, a government official tasked with cleaning up Lara’s mess.
- Sasha Luss: Lara’s new rival.
- Juliette Motamed: Georgia, a British Museum curator.
- Sigourney Weaver: Evelyn Wallis, a mysterious woman who is keen to exploit Lara’s talents.
- August Wittgenstein: Lukas, an illegal raider who shares history with Lara.
Behind the scenes, Tomb Raider is led by Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Fleabag fame, who serves as creator, writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner. Chad Hodge joins her as co-showrunner and executive producer, while Jonathan Van Tulleken is attached as director and executive producer. Amazon MGM Studios produces the live-action show alongside Legendary Television, Story Kitchen, and the game series developer Crystal Dynamics.
Despite initial apprehension, many fans on Reddit seem to agree that Turner ‘surprisingly’ looks the part. But longtime followers have one recurring worry that has nothing to do with costumes or casting. Instead, it’s about storytelling — specifically, the fear of yet another dragged-on origin story where Lara Croft spends most of the season not being the Tomb Raider.
“My only hope is that they don’t pull a Surf Dracula and have her be a completely different character for an entire season until she finally finds herself in the finale of the last episode,” wrote Nerdy_Valkyrie, referring to a joke post about how modern series often stretch origin arcs so long, you might as well wait for season two.
“Please just let her be Lara Croft from the start. Please. We do not need an origin story again.”
Psycharious echoed the sentiment with humor, “Freeze frame during a battle with a dinosaur. ‘You’re probably wondering how I got here…'”
“I would be fine with origin story if it was either just one episode — but DEFINITELY not the entire season being her BECOMING Tomb Raider,” wrote Albus_Lupus. “#@$& no.”
There’s also skepticism about whether the game-accurate look will even survive past the pilot. Some fans are afraid that the Sophie Turner Tomb Raider will pull the infamous white-hair Dante scene in Ninja Theory’s Devil may Cry. “Cue a scene in the first episode where she wears that for some reason and they all laugh and go ‘Nope’ and she changes into something boring,” kendragon wrote.
The concern isn’t new. Even the last Tomb Raider trilogy has struggled to balance character development with letting Lara Croft actually do what she’s known for. And that’s backflipping and raiding tombs while akimboing endangered, or even extinct, creatures. With Amazon’s live-action series now officially underway, fans are watching closely to see whether this version avoids the same pitfalls.
