Sophie Turner could be playing lesbian favourite Lara Croft in new Phoebe Waller-Bridge series

Joan star Sophie Turner has reportedly lined up her next big role, starring in a new series based on Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft.

If there’s one thing Sophie Turner knows how to do, it’s survive. After a decade of playing Game of Thrones’ sufferer-in-chief Sansa Stark, she’s adept at yielding weapons, wiping out enemies, and protecting the things she cares about.

Thankfully, those three qualities are pretty integral to Tomb Raider pin-up and British archeologist Lara Croft, a character who Turner is apparently in the running to play in the near future.

According to Deadline, the Emmy-nominated, bisexual Brit is set to take up the mantle of portraying the gaming legend, following in the footsteps of stars including Angelina Jolie, Minnie Drive, and most recently, Hayley Atwell.

The video game series is being adapted by actress and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge as one of her biggest projects post the generation-defining BBC hit, Fleabag, and will stream on Prime Video.

Waller-Bridge has previously said that the character and original gaming franchise “mean a lot” to her, while Amazon boss Jennifer Salke has dubbed the upcoming series an “epic” and “globe-trotting” adventure that will be a “huge” franchise for the streamer.

In the near 30 years since the first Tomb Raider video game dropped in 1996, Lara Croft has been frequently namechecked as a sexual awakening for queer women around the globe.

you can’t spell lara croft without lesbianpic.twitter.com/z3L61zM7xn

— sam (@clairesjill) August 6, 2024

As a powerful, badass treasure-hunter, Lara Croft was one of the first leading women in a hit video game franchise, and is celebrated for helping to redefine the role of women in games.

Her sexuality has long been a topic of discussion, most recently following the release of Atwell’s animated Netflix series Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft in August this year.

you know lara croft is a lesbian bc only a lesbian has the stamina to survive this much shit pic.twitter.com/BswFcYRK3U

— ria . arcane s2 spoilers (@sapphcore) November 6, 2023

i have never seen lara flirting with men but she sure flirts with women all the time… my girl is a LESBIAN pic.twitter.com/06hzKUX74R

— mari ☁️ (@larasbians) October 13, 2024

While the Netflix series by no means confirms Lara Croft to be a lesbian, it is hinted that she’s not exactly straight. Though for any queer person who has enjoyed Tomb Raider and its many iterations over the years, those gay undertones have always been bubbling under the surface.

In 2020, Jackson Lanzing, one of the co-writers of comic Tomb Raider: Inferno confirmed that there was a planned queer kiss for Lara Croft in his adaptation, but it ended up being edited out in favour of… a hug.

Of course, a flurry of YouTube reviewers and social media dwellers were unimpressed at the hints in the Netflix series that our gun-toting do-gooder could be a lesbian, while on the flip side, the sapphic Croft stans went wild.

It seems sadly unlikely that Waller-Bridge’s adaptation will finally make Lara Croft the canon queer woman many already see her as, but still, she’ll always be one of the community’s ultimate gaming icons.

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