Sigourney Weaver is joining the cast of Prime Video’s upcoming Tomb Raider series. According to Deadline, the casting isn’t a done deal quite yet, but she’s circling a role opposite Sophie Turner, who will play the iconic lead character of the Tomb Raider video game series, Lara Croft. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is writing and executive producing the Tomb Raider show.
It is unknown who Weaver would play in the series, and whether that character comes from the game or is a new creation. Deadline reports that Prime Video had no comment on the matter. The Tomb Raider series, an Amazon MGM Studios production, is set to begin filming on Jan. 19.
Weaver is an iconic actress best known for playing Ellen Ripley in the original Alien and its first three sequels. Weaver has been busy in recent years with roles in James Cameron’s Avatar, including playing a 14-year-old, and is joining the Star Wars universe in the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu movie. Her most recent feature is Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny, which opens this weekend.
Weaver’s presumed casting comes following a bit of other casting news. British actor Martin Bobb-Semple joined the Tomb Raider cast at the start of December.
Tomb Raider Brings the Video Game Series to Life on Prime Video
 PA Images/INSTARimages
The new Tomb Raider series has been in the works at Prime Video since at least 2023. The greenlight for the series to go into production was officially given in 2024, when Turner was announced as the new Lara Croft. Along with Waller-Bridge, Tomb Raider is executive produced by Chad Hodge, who will also be her co-showrunner, and Jonathan van Tulleken, who will direct. Rumor has it that this series will be part of a larger shared universe that will also include feature films.
Prime Video’s Tomb Raider streaming series is a fresh start for the franchise following a handful of past adaptations. Angelina Jolie was the first to play Lara Croft in a film. She starred in two movies based on the hit video game series, 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its 2003 sequel, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life.
Alicia Vikander starred as Lara Croft in a 2018 reboot movie titled simply Tomb Raider​​​​​. That film was heavily influenced by the reboot of the Tomb Raider video game series, which occurred a few years prior. A sequel was being planned, but ultimately fell apart when MGM’s rights to the property expired.
More recently, Netflix released an anime series titled Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Its second and final season premieres on Netflix on Dec. 11.
Tomb Raider follows the exploits and adventures of the archaeologist Lara Croft. It’s based on the Tomb Raider action-adventure video game franchise that first rose to popularity in the 1990s on the Sony PlayStation. The series’ popularity ebbed over the years since then, but saw renewed interest in the 2010s following a successful reboot that added more realism and updated gameplay to the series. The Tomb Raider has since been acquired by Embracer Group, which has announced plans to break into three separate companies following a period of overexpansion, with plans to tuck the Tomb Raider IP into the portfolio of Middle-earth Enterprises under its Fellowship Entertainment studio.
Showrunner
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Chad Hodge
Writers
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
