Sigourney Weaver Eyes Tomb Raider Role

Tomb Raider may have found its villain in Sigourney Weaver, who’s said to be close to signing on to the upcoming Prime Video series.

First there were the Angelina Jolie flicks way back in the day: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life in 2002. Then we had Alicia Vikander in the tank top for 2018’s Tomb Raider in 2018, a film nobody remembers actually came out. And though there’s reportedly yet another feature film in development (there’s always another feature film in development), the next time we see Lara Croft on screen, it’ll be a small one, as Prime Video are moving ahead with their live action series adaptation of the revered video games franchise.

Now comes the news that they’ve landed on a villain, with Deadline reporting that Sigourney Weaver is about to commit to an as-yet-undisclosed role in the series. Elsewhere, the scuttlebutt has it that Weaver is earmarked to play a bad guy, which strikes me as a bit presumptuous, but there you go.

If she signs up, it’ll be the latest leg of a pretty busy run for Weaver, who has Avatar: Fire And Ash hitting cinemas shortly, plus the horror movie Dusty Bunny from Hannibal main man Bryan Fuller, who’s making his feature directing debut. Here, she joins Sophie Turner in the title role as daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft, plus British actor Martin Bobb-Semple in an undisclosed role. Behind the scenes, Fleabag‘s Phoebe-Waller Bridge is writing and co-showrunning along with Jonathan Van Tulleken (Shōgun). Production is scheduled to kick off on January 19, which is impressive considering the project was reportedly dead in the water in early 2025.

How it all shakes out is anyone’s guess. Tomb Raider is one of those properties that should work on screen – all the ingredients are there – but so far simply hasn’t. Apparently the 1999 version of The Mummy is the guiding light on this take, so maybe this time we’ll finally get a tomb worth raiding.