Luther, the British thriller series starring Idris Elba as the titular detective, could see a return soon. The news comes from creator Neil Cross himself, who has said that not everything’s over in the universe of the violent yet brilliant agent. But before you get your hopes up, Cross has also confirmed that he isn’t thinking about writing another season of the show. It could simply be another movie.
Cross confirmed this to Radio Times during an interview for The Radio Times Writers’ Room. While the original show was unquestionably better than the film expansion of 2023, and has a stronger cult following, the showrunner said that a movie would feel more “natural” for the character:
“Certainly, were he to come back, were that happy event to take place, I think film would be the natural place for him.
“There are extraordinarily strong possibilities you might see him again. Is that the heaviest hint that’s possible to give without Netflix sending a trained assassin around to silence me? Yeah, there’s every chance you will meet him again.”
Cross did not say what he was planning to do with the Luther franchise, but he did hint at a possible spin-off set in the same universe as the ruthless detective. Per the writer/showrunner: “But the world of Luther… I think, things are such now that it’s not just a character, it’s a world. If you’ve gone on long enough, there is a world to inhabit, and elements of that world can belong on the big or the small screen. So I wouldn’t be at all averse to something in the same universe, as it were, happening on telly.”
The TV series Luther consists of five parts that ran from 2010 to 2019, rounding up to a total of 20 episodes. In the show, DCI John Luther is an obsessive detective trying to catch criminals. He is sometimes unable to control himself, and this has earned him a reputation among his peers. When investigating a murderer named Alice Morgan, Luther becomes obsessed with her, and actually ends up bonding with her.
In 2023, Netflix premiered the feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun, which saw the agent trying to stop a sadistic serial killer. The film starred Elba alongside Cynthia Erivo, Andy Serkis, Dermot Crowley, and Hattie Morahan, among others. While it had a good critical reception, the film did not perform as well as the TV show did during its original run. Today, it sits at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Can ‘Luther’ Work Without Idris Elba’s Iconic Crime-Fighting Character?
There’s no doubt that Neil Cross is the creative force behind the beloved British crime series. He took care of all the screenwriting duties across the franchise that premiered on BBC One in 2010. However, it is hard to imagine a film or a TV show taking place in the universe of Luther without the presence of Idris Elba as the unorthodox agent with a unique ability to catch the bad guys.
Can a Luther spin-off work without Luther himself? It’s hard to say whether Cross could pinpoint a character with enough dramatic weight to sustain a movie or a series. Nevertheless, throughout the Luther universe there have been plenty of interesting characters that could have their own expansion. It could happen, but any attempt to replace Luther would be a major gamble.
