Amazon Has Cast Indiana Jones' Successor, And She's The Perfect Choice

Published Oct 3, 2026, 1:45 AM EDT

Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.

Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism.

Amazon has found the successor to Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones, and the actress they cast is perfect for the role. As Harrison Ford has gotten older, Disney and Lucasfilm have tried to replace him a handful of times. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, for example, tried and failed to establish Indy's son, played by Shia LaBeouf, as his replacement, while Dial of Destiny tried to have Indy's goddaughter, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, take over as the franchise's protagonist.

There have even been recent efforts to recast Indiana Jones. The video game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, for example, chose Troy Baker to take on the titular role. While that last effort was fairly successful, Baker can only provide Indiana Jones' voice, not his likeness. Disney and Lucasfilm still don't have a replacement for Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones even after over a decade of attempts and the franchise's enduring popularity.

While Amazon doesn't own the rights to Indiana Jones, it does have an upcoming show that acts as a spiritual successor to it. The upcoming Tomb Raider show fills almost the exact same niche as Indiana Jones: it's based on the video games of the same name, which follow Lara Croft, an archaeologist who travels the world in search of ancient relics that often carry supernatural powers. Amzaon's Tomb Raider has all the adventure, action, and excitement of Indiana Jones and, most importantly, it has Harrison Ford's successor.

Sophie Turner Is The Perfect Choice For Tomb Raider's Lara Croft

Amazon confirmed that Sophie Turner of Game of Thrones and X-Men: Dark Phoenix fame will play Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider show. Anyone who has played Tomb Raider knows that Turner is a fantastic choice to play Lara. She has the posh British accent, the athleticism and flexibility required to do Lara's acrobatics and other feats, and much more that make her a natural fit for the role.

Sophie Turner's filmography also reads like a resume for playing Lara Croft. Her experience playing Sansa on Game of Thrones gave Turner a lot of experience being a star on a long-lasting television show, which is hopefully the same fate Tomb Raider will get. Her work in the X-Men franchise also helps. While the movies themselves weren't great, her role as Jean Grey proved she's great at faithfully playing an established character in a live-action adaptation.

More broadly, Turner is the last piece of the puzzle Tomb Raider needed to become a success story. The show already has excellent source material with a built-in following of gamers, it's being written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who herself has experience with Indiana Jones and proved her writing talents on Fleabag, and it has Amazon's production budget. All Tomb Raider was missing was a charismatic and beautiful star to play Lara, and the show found that in spades in Sophie Turner.

Amazon's Tomb Raider Is The Next Best Thing To A New Indiana Jones TV Show

With Sophie Turner in the lead role, Amazon's Tomb Raider is also poised to be the best adventure show since Indiana Jones. While there was an Indiana Jones television show in the 1990s, the series went underappreciated and, as previously mentioned, the two most recent films were lackluster. Tomb Raider has also had its share of misfires, with Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander both delivering lukewarm live-action movies.

All that is to say that the action genre hasn't had a major hit in a long time. The last successful adventure film, Uncharted, performed well financially but was panned by critics. Amazon's Tomb Raider now has a chance to rekindle the success, both financially and critically, that the adventure genre hasn't enjoyed consistently since Indiana Jones. While Turner may not be a star of the same caliber as Harrison Ford, she is still a star, and Lara Croft is nearly as iconic as Indy.

Tomb Raider has a lot going for it. As previously mentioned, it has a great showrunner in Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a great star in Sophie Turner, and a brilliant story to use as a jumping off point in the Tomb Raider games. Whether the Amazon show adapts the newer "Survivor" games or some of Lara's classic adventures, it can feel just as grand and adventurous as the best Indiana Jones movies did. If you like adventure stories, keep an eye out for Tomb Raider.

Showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Chad Hodge

Writers Phoebe Waller-Bridge

• Sophie Turner

  Lara Croft

Creator(s) Phoebe Waller-Bridge