Despite there being only 20 episodes across 5 seasons, Luther remains one of the most popular projects Idris Elba has ever been part of. The BBC series was a huge hit, and there was talk of a movie continuation for years. Now, though, it's finally happening, and we have a first look courtesy of Empire Online.
The movie is heading to Netflix and will also star Andy Serkis and Cynthia Erivo, with original writer Neil Cross penning the screenplay.
We don't know much beyond that, but the first-look images below show Elba back as Detective Luther in his familiar overcoat...albeit in very different surroundings from his usual London haunts!
"We really peel the onion back here because we had the time and scale to do that," the actor says. "It also gives Neil [Cross] a lot more, you know, Luther-land to play with, in terms of where Luther can go, how he goes, what the landscape is."
"We break out of the gritty streets of London, we take it outside of that a little bit," Elba continues. "And that’s great. It feels like now we’re entering a different life of the Luther experience."
Despite the change in setting, he'd go on to promise that fans of the series can look forward to this movie spin-off having a suitably dark tone. "It’s really dangerous when expanding from television to film to throw a lot of money at it, and for that moment to change the characteristics of the show."
"I wanted to make sure that even though we had a bigger budget, [we didn’t] distort the parameters of Luther-land too much. We do amplify the action and do amplify the stakes. But [Season 3’s] man-under-the-bed moment? That don’t cost you much money. Those moments are still intact."
Take a look at the first images from the Luther movie below.