Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner in the running to play Lara Croft in Tomb Raider show
By Dan Selcke
There's been a sudden resurgence of interest in Tomb Raider, the long-running video game series about international treasure hunter Lara Croft, who's kind of like a British Indianan Jones. Netflix recently premiered an animated series called Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Meanwhile, Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge is working on a live-action Tomb Raider show, and it sounds like she could be closing in on her leading lady.
According to Deadline, Sophie Turner and Lucy Boynton are testing for the role. Turner is best known for playing Sansa Stark on HBO's fantasy megahit Game of Thrones. She's done a fair amount of TV and film afterwards, most recently playing real-life diamond thief Joan Hannington in the crime drama Joan. Boynton, meanwhile, is best known for her role in films like Murder on the Orient Express and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Deadline says that there are other actors on Amazon's wishlist for the role, including Emma Corrin and Mackenzie Davis, but says that neither of them are thought to be testing, so this sounds like a contest between Turner and Boynton. Both actors are talented, and we're not sure what Phoebe Waller-Bridge is looking for when it comes to a lead. But Lara Croft will be a feather in the cap of whoever gets the role; she's been a gaming icon since the first Tomb Raider game was released way back in 1996, and has been played by some big names on the big screen, including Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander.
This kind of reminds me of when Milly Alcock, a veteran of the Game of Thrones spinoff show House of the Dragon, was in contention for the role of Supergirl, a character who will figure prominently in the new DC Cinematic Universe being spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Alcock did end up winning the role. We'll see if things also work out for her fellow citizen of Westeros.
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