After years of rumors, the first official image of Sophie Turner in the Tomb Raider series has finally arrived, giving fans a full-body look at her Lara Croft for Prime Video. Unveiled on January 15, 2026, the photo marks the official start of production on Amazon MGM Studios’ live-action Tomb Raider TV show and gives a clear sense of how Sophie Turner in the Tomb Raider series will honor the classic games while pushing the franchise into its next era.
The 29-year-old Game of Thrones alum steps into the role four months after she was confirmed to lead Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s adaptation, continuing a live-action lineage that includes Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander, plus Minnie Driver’s voice work in the animated web series Revisioned: Tomb Raider. A release date for the Prime Video series has not yet been announced, but cameras are rolling, and the first-look image makes one thing clear: this Lara Croft means business.
First look: a 1996 throwback with teal tank, red shades, and twin pistols
The new image of Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, shot by Jay Maidment for Prime Video, leans directly into the original 1996 Tomb Raider game and its slightly refined 1997 sequel, Tomb Raider II. Turner channels Lara’s classic silhouette with a teal (or turquoise) tank top, black shorts, a leather backpack, fingerless gloves, a utility belt, and side holsters. Red-hued sunglasses sit over her eyes, and her hair is pulled back into the signature braided ponytail, with a few loose strands framing her face.
Entertainment Weekly describes the look as a direct homage to the early days of the franchise, pointing out that Turner “sports the look first introduced in the original 1996 Tomb Raider game (and slightly improved in 1997’s Tomb Raider II),” right down to the short shorts and red-tinted glasses. The image also signals the tone: a confident adventurer ready to raid tombs rather than a gritty reimagining in line with the 2013 reboot.
For Turner, this has been a long time coming. In a 2025 statement shortly after her casting was announced, she said, “I’ve been a long-time fan of Tomb Raider,” and added later, “I can’t wait for you all to see what we have cooking.” Away from Lara Croft, she is known not only for Game of Thrones but also for the dark teen comedy Do Revenge. Off-screen, she shares daughters Willa, 5, and Delphine, 3, with ex-husband Joe Jonas, adding another dimension to seeing her step into such a physically demanding, action-heavy role.
Turner has also been candid about how different this part feels compared to her previous work. In a recent interview, she explained that she is not usually thought of as an “action girl” or someone who automatically reads as powerful and unshakably self-possessed on-screen, and that she often plays characters who doubt themselves. Here, she embraces a more self-assured persona, calling it refreshing to do something new.
Tomb Raider cast and characters: who joins Sophie Turner as Lara Croft?
The Tomb Raider TV show is not just a star vehicle for Sophie Turner; it arrives with an ensemble designed to echo the games’ world and broaden it. The cast already includes Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Martin Bobb-Semple, Jack Bannon, John Heffernan, Bill Paterson, Paterson Joseph, Sasha Luss, Juliette Motamed, and August Wittgenstein, with several of those roles now mapped directly to fan-favorite characters from the Crystal Dynamics era.
- Sophie Turner plays Lara Croft, the iconic British archaeologist and adventurer. At 29, she brings years of genre cred from Game of Thrones and other projects, now pivoting into full action-hero mode on Prime Video.
- Jason Isaacs, known from the Harry Potter films and The White Lotus, portrays Atlas DeMornay, Lara’s uncle. For game fans, he serves as a familiar anchor to Lara’s family history and the Croft legacy first introduced 30 years ago in 1996.
- Martin Bobb-Semple, a supporting player in All American: Homecoming, plays Zip, Lara’s tech support ally, updating the hacker-sidekick dynamic for a streaming-era heist-adventure tone.
- Bill Paterson, who recently appeared in House of the Dragon, steps in as Winston, Lara’s butler. The series nods to his mischievous presence in the early games, where he wandered her mansion and occasionally provided comic relief.
- Celia Imrie, from the Bridget Jones film series, appears as a new character named Francine, described as “the head of advancement at the British Museum” who is “focused solely on raising funds and glasses of champagne.” The character promises to inject academic politics and dry humor into Lara’s globe-trotting.
- Sigourney Weaver lends her genre-icon status to the ensemble in an as-yet-undisclosed role, further cementing the show as a major event for action and sci-fi fans.
- Jack Bannon, John Heffernan, Paterson Joseph, Sasha Luss, Juliette Motamed, and August Wittgenstein round out the supporting cast, with their specific characters kept under wraps but clearly intended to populate Lara’s world with allies, rivals, and adversaries.
In the broader Tomb Raider legacy, Turner follows Angelina Jolie, who fronted two Tomb Raider films between 2001 and 2003, and Alicia Vikander, who took over for the 2018 big-screen reboot. Minnie Driver’s turn as the voice of Lara in Revisioned: Tomb Raider — an animated web series — further proves how many different formats the character has already conquered.
A sequel to the 2018 Tomb Raider movie was once in development, with Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green attached to write and direct, and The Danish Girl star Vikander expected to reprise her role. By 2022, however, Vikander was openly doubtful that the film would move forward, clearing the way for Amazon and Prime Video to redefine Lara Croft on television instead.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and a cross-media Tomb Raider universe
Behind the camera, Phoebe Waller-Bridge serves as writer and executive producer on the Tomb Raider series. The British actor, screenwriter, and producer brings heavyweight credentials: she has won Emmy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards for her work on Fleabag. That track record suggests the show will lean into sharp character work and layered humor even as it delivers action set pieces.
The timing of the first look is not accidental. Amazon has been building Tomb Raider into a cross-media franchise alongside Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games. Earlier announcements tied the show to two upcoming games revealed at The Game Awards: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, described as a “reimagining” of the original Tomb Raider, and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a brand-new adventure slated for 2027 that sends Lara to Northern India.
Crystal Dynamics boss Scott Amos has praised this alliance, saying, “Our Amazon partners have been tremendous.” He also emphasizes that “The fans benefit from all of it,” framing the series and games as a coordinated effort to honor Lara’s past while expanding her future across TV and consoles.
With Amazon MGM Studios backing the live-action show, Amazon Games involved on the interactive side, and an entire ecosystem of new titles in development, Tomb Raider is clearly being positioned as a long-term flagship franchise — not just a nostalgic one-off.
Release date status: production underway, premiere still unannounced
For now, what fans have is the image and the cast list, but not a date on the calendar. Both the first-look photo and the accompanying production notes make it clear that filming has only just begun, and all three major reports agree that an official release date for Tomb Raider has yet to be announced.
That uncertainty puts Sophie Turner’s Lara Croft in an interesting position. The character turns 30 years old as a video game icon this year, after first appearing in 1996, yet this may be the most ambitious cross-media push she has ever had — even without a premiere date locked in. The safest assumption is that the series will arrive after Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and before or around the 2027 release of Tomb Raider: Catalyst, but as of mid-January 2026 that remains speculation, not confirmed scheduling.
How this Lara Croft fits into Tomb Raider history
Based on what has been revealed so far, the creative mission for Sophie Turner’s Lara Croft looks like a bridge between eras rather than a total reinvention. The costume pulls from the polygonal 1996 and 1997 designs, right down to the braid and sunglasses, while the cast and writer point toward a more emotionally complex and serialized story than the original games offered.
Even Entertainment Weekly’s playful reference to the show unearthing a treasure “more elusive than the Dagger of Xian” hints at deep-cut lore awareness. That artifact originates from the games, not the films, suggesting viewers can expect the TV series to dig into the broader Tomb Raider mythos beyond the most famous movie beats.
Turner’s own career arc also makes her an intriguing choice. Coming off Game of Thrones and projects like Do Revenge, she has experience with genre world-building and morally complicated protagonists, but Lara Croft demands physicality and swagger more than political maneuvering. The Prime Video series can therefore lean into stunts and puzzles while still using Waller-Bridge’s sensibility to explore Lara’s family, grief, and ambition, especially through characters like Atlas DeMornay, Winston, Zip, and Francine.
Where Tomb Raider fits into a packed schedule
The first-look reveal for Sophie Turner in Tomb Raider series lands amid an already crowded January 2026 TV landscape. The same preview cycle that showcased Turner’s Lara Croft also highlighted a wave of other premieres and returns across broadcast, cable, streaming, and premium platforms, giving a sense of how competitive attention will be when Tomb Raider eventually debuts.
- RuPaul’s Drag Race returns on MTV and Paramount Networks on January 2. Fourteen new queens hit the Werk Room to compete for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar,” an official collaboration with Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics, and a cash prize of $200,000 tied into the video game RuPaul’s Drag Race Match Queen.
- Snapped launches season 36 on Oxygen on January 4, continuing the true-crime franchise’s long run.
- The Rookie comes back to ABC on January 6 for its eighth season, with Nathan Fillion once again leading the procedural.
- Will Trent, also on ABC, returns the same night for season four, with Ramón Rodríguez and his team solving more cases.
- 1000-Lb Sisters on TLC and Warner Bros. Discovery resumes on January 6. Amy prepares to marry Brian in a Halloween-themed wedding with a wild bachelorette trip to New Orleans, while Tammy, nearing 40, adjusts after skin-removal surgery, volunteers at an animal shelter, and plans to move in with her girlfriend Andrea.
- Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. delivers season 12 on PBS and YouTube, adding another slate of 20 celebrity guests exploring their ancestry.
- Best Medicine on Fox follows Dr. Martin Best, played by Josh Charles, as a doctor whose career implodes in Boston, forcing him to start over in a small East Coast fishing village.
- The Masked Singer returns with season 14 on Fox, keeping its panel guessing as masked celebrities perform elaborate numbers.
- The Valley: Persian Style expands the Bravo reality universe beginning January 8, a Persian American spinoff of The Valley.
- The Traitors continues on Peacock under the NBCUniversal umbrella, with a new season dropping on January 8 and more strategic betrayals inside a secluded castle.
- HIS & HERS hits Netflix on January 8, following Atlanta news anchor Anna and her husband Jack Harper as they juggle marriage and careers across Atlanta and Dahlonega.
- The Hunting Party on NBC centers on FBI agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, played by Melissa Roxburgh, who leads a team tracking killers from a brutal underground world known as The Pit.
- A Thousand Blows, arriving on Hulu via Disney, returns to the 1880s East End. The series follows Mary Carr (Alice Diamond’s rival), Hezekiah, and Sugar Goodson as prizefighters and gang conflicts collide.
- Maxxed Out on OWN is an eight-episode docuseries about couples facing financial catastrophe, exploring how money stress threatens their relationships.
- Tell Me Lies returns on Hulu and Disney for another season at Baird College, as Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco — played by Grace Van Patten and Jackson White — deepen their toxic connection.
- Suddenly Amish on TLC and Warner Bros. Discovery follows six non-Amish participants who leave comfort behind to live within Amish communities near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- Pole to Pole With Will Smith on National Geographic chronicles Will Smith’s globe-spanning journey as he visits all seven continents and travels from the North Pole to the South Pole, across the Amazon, the Himalayas, Africa, the Pacific, and the Arctic.
- Fear Factor: House of Fear reinvents the classic Fear Factor format on Fox, with Johnny Knoxville overseeing a group isolated in a remote house where they must perform terrifying stunts and navigate shifting alliances.
- Riot Women on BritBox introduces five menopausal women — including Beth and Kitty — who form a punk rock band, using music to rebel against expectations.
- Going Dutch returns on Fox on January 15 with more relationship-centered comedy set in the Netherlands.
- Animal Control continues on Fox with a fourth season, following animal control officers whose chaotic cases mirror their personal lives.
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO expands the Game of Thrones universe with another Westeros-set adventure about an unlikely duo on the road.
- The Beauty, an FX and Hulu genre hybrid starring Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall, from creators Ryan Murphy and Matthew Hodgson, also features Ashton Kutcher, Jeremy Pope, Bella Hadid, Isabella Rossellini, Ben Platt, Jessica Alexander, and Vincent D’Onofrio in a twisted sci-fi horror drama.
- Drops of God returns to Apple TV+ as Camille and Issei continue to grapple with the legacy of wine legend Alexandre Léger in a high-stakes global competition.
- American Idol comes back to ABC on January 26, marking its 24th overall season and ninth on the network, with judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Carrie Underwood, plus host Ryan Seacrest, returning. Hollywood Week: Music City Takeover moves to Nashville.
- Memory of a Killer on Fox adapts the Belgian thriller De Zaak Alzheimer, with Patrick Dempsey playing hitman Angelo Doyle in a story about a contract killer losing his memory.
- Extracted closes out January 26 programming on Fox as a family-centered reality competition returning for a second season.
All of that underscores just how jam-packed the TV environment will be whenever Tomb Raider lands. Even in a month overflowing with reality competitions, genre dramas, and true crime, Turner’s Lara Croft will need to carve out her own must-watch identity.
What’s next for Sophie Turner’s Lara Croft?
What we know so far about Sophie Turner in Tomb Raider series is both specific and tantalizingly incomplete. We have a costume rooted in 1996, a cast that connects directly to beloved game characters like Winston and Zip, a writer-producer in Phoebe Waller-Bridge whose awards from Fleabag suggest a blend of wit and emotional depth, and a broader cross-media plan involving Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, the latter due in 2027 with Lara exploring Northern India.
What we do not have yet is a premiere date or a sense of how many episodes the first season will run. Until Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video make those details public, fans will have to content themselves with dissecting the first-look image and tracking every new casting announcement.
Still, the early signs are promising. Sophie Turner has declared herself a longtime fan of the games, is clearly embracing the physical transformation, and is stepping into Lara Croft at a moment when the character is celebrating 30 years of history. Whether you discovered Lara in the 1996 original, in the films between 2001 and 2003, in the 2013 reboot, or in the 2018 movie, this new Prime Video era looks ready to unify that legacy. When Tomb Raider finally premieres, it could be the defining version of Lara Croft for a whole new generation.
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