Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) has words with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) in Dark Phoenix (2019), Marvel Entertainment / Lara Croft raids a tomb via Card #1501, Magic: The Gathering – Secret Lair Drop (2023), Wizards of the Coast. Art by Greg Staples.
While Sophie Turner may have won over fans with her performance as Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones (and lost them with her performance as Jean Grey in X-Men: Dark Phoenix), the recent announcement that the British actress will portray Lara Croft in Amazon’s Tomb Raider series has left long-time fans of the video game heroine less than thrilled.

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) confronts Magneto (Michael Fassbender) in Dark Phoenix (2019), Marvel Entertainment
Turner was first mentioned as a candidate to be the next live-action Lara Croft at the tail end of October 2024, when Deadline reported that both she and Lucy Boynton, who played ‘Proust Barbie’ in 2023’s Barbie, were at that point gearing up to test for the part of the eponymous tomb raider.

Then, roughly a two-weeks later on November 14th, the outlet reported that Turner was not only the front runner for the part, but that she was currently “in negotiations” to star as the series’ lead.

Lara Croft (Judith Gibbons) takes aim at Tony (Peter Kelamis) in in Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft Remastered (2023), Crystal Dynamics
However, rather than widespread applause and celebration, Turner’s all-but-official-casting as Lara Croft was instead met with disappointment, with many franchise fans arguing that the actress was, simply put, just not a good fit for the turquoise-tank-top-clad archaeologist.

In a thread discussing the potential casting on the /r/TombRaider subreddit, /u/Southbysouthwestt asserted, “I can’t see it one bit.”

“Makes me sad because I saw Karen Gillan in Jumanji and was like, ‘That’s Lara’,” they added. “That’s her. And I’ve always envisioned her as Lara. Now I’m just disappointed because Sansa as Lara seems really off.”

“I don’t think she’s a bad actress at all,” said /u/Kara_Del_Ray, “but I cannot picture her as Lara whatsoever”.
Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) learns of her cosmic destiny from Vuk (Jessica Chastain) in Dark Phoenix (2019), Marvel Entertainment
Likewise, /u/ShockedPeekachu opined, “I’d be happy to get proven otherwise, but as many here I just can’t see it.”

“And I’m still trying to find out why,” they explained. “I liked her in Game of Thrones, she was very fitting for (at least early) Sansa Stark. But I see Lara as … less stiff, I guess? Turner doesn’t strike me as the type to free climb a cliff or give a sassy comment after evading a falling boulder. But we’ll see what kind of Lara they are giving us in the show.

Others still took issue with the anecdote, as previously recalled by her co-star Jennifer Lawrence, that a scene of Turner crying in Dark Phoenix (likely the one in which Jean Grey, shocked by the manifestation of her powers, cries in an alley during a downpour) was apparently helped by her vocal coach having taken her Juul vape pod away from her right before the scene started shooting, which said fans raised as proof that the actress was too “stiff” for the role of Lara.

(It should be noted that despite the criticisms, Lawrence at no point suggested that Turner needed her vape taken away in order to cry, but rather was offering a playful insight into why she personally found the resulting scene to be so much more “honest and real” than usual.)
Lara Croft gets her next lead on Natla in Tomb Raider Remastered (2023), Crystal Dynamics

However, while fans found Turner to be a mismatch for the series’ lead protagonist, in acknowledging her talents as an actress, they did propose an alternate role for the X-Men alumni.

As raised by /u/MarcusForrest and met with agreement from his fellow users, rather than Lara Croft, Turner would be better suited to play villainous Jacqueline Natla.
/u/MarcusForrest via the /r/TombRaider subreddit
Appearing in the first Tomb Raider game (as well as its retelling, Tomb Raider: Anniversary and in a cameo capacity in Underworld), Natla is a former member of The Triumvirate of Atlantis, a trio of powerful aristocrats who ruled over the ancient civilization.

Eventually deposed and imprisoned for misusing her power by attempting to overthrow her fellow Triumvirate members and take their authority as her own, Natla eventually escapes from captivity and makes her to land, where she proceeds to use her cunning to establish her own Natla Technologies conglomerate in the hopes of using its resources to help usher in a new Atlantean age.
Natla demands Lara Croft hand over the Atlantean artifact in her possession in Tomb Raider (1996), Eidos Interactive
And though she originally starts out as an ally to Lara, being the one who initially hired her to search the world for ancient Atlantean artifacts, Natal ultimately betrays the heroine, sending multiple assassins to kill her.

Described as tall, skinny, and bearing pale skin, Natal is a role that would near perfectly fit Turner.

Further, her experience as Sansa Stark suggests she’d be a better fit for the vengeful, scheming villain rather than the straight-forward Lara.
Natla (Grey Griffin) is sentenced to limbo in Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007), Eidos Interactive
At current, Amazon has yet to official confirm Turner’s casting in the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-penned series, which the Indian Jones and the Dial of Destiny star is creating as part of her long-term deal with the media conglomerate.

But in addition to Deadline, Variety has also reported that per their sources, “the deal is not fully closed yet but is expected to close soon.”