Sophie Turner Says Training for TV’s ‘Tomb Raider’ Revealed a Health Condition

Lara Croft is back in action, and Sophie Turner’s back is certainly feeling it.

In a recent interview, Turner said she discovered she has back issues while training to play Lara in Prime Video’s upcoming live-action TV adaptation of the Tomb Raider video games.

“We’ve been doing eight hours a day, five days a week, since February last year of training, so it’s been a lot,” Turner said on SiriusXM’s The Julia Cunningham Show.

She added, “I’ve learned I have a perpetual back problem, but I also realized that it’s much easier to build muscle if you’ve ever worked out before in your life, which I never had, so it has taken me months and months and months to get into good shape. That’s what I’ve learned.”

Though she’s best known for her role as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones, Turner reminded listeners that her character was “kind of was the one that got beat up, not the one doing the beating.” So with her new role as Lara Croft, “it’s quite nice to learn how to throw a punch and not just take it,” she said.

Prime Video’s Tomb Raider series has been in the works since at least January 2023, when fans learned Phoebe Waller-Bridge was developing the project, and in November 2024 came the news that Turner was in talks to play the British archaeologist at the heart of the story.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

But Prime Video didn’t confirm Turner’s involvement until September 2025, when the streamer also announced that Chad Hodge (Good Behavior) would be joining Waller-Bridge as co-showrunner.

And in January, Prime Video shared a photo of Turner in costume as Lara — with her garb matching the character’s appearance in the 1996 Tomb Raider game — and announced additional cast members for the TV series. Those cast additions include Martin Bobb-Semple as Zip, Lara’s longtime tech support and friend, Jason Isaacs as Atlas DeMornay, Lara’s uncle, and Bill Paterson as Winston, the Croft family’s long-standing butler.

Other stars of the Tomb Raider TV series are Jack Bannon as Gerry, Lara’s personal pilot; John Heffernan as a government official named David; Celia Imrie as Francine, the head of advancement at the British Museum; Juliette Motamed as Georgia, a curator at the museum; Paterson Joseph as government official Thomas Warner; Sasha Luss as Sasha, an adversary of Lara’s; Sigourney Weaver as Evelyn Wallis, as mysterious woman keen to exploit Lara’s talents; and August Wittgenstein as Lukas a fellow raider with ties to Lara.

Tomb Raider, TBD, Prime Video