Idris Elba on Luther: The Fallen Sun – 'His superpower is conviction'

So there will be some Sean Connery-style raised eyebrows at the meta references to Bond dotted throughout a new version of Luther, the first big-screen version of the TV franchise after five seasons on the BBC.

One cheeky scene in particular has Luther refusing a martini, Bond’s favourite cocktail, a moment that creator and writer Neil Cross describes to Radio Times as "an extended middle finger and a wink" at Bond because, he jokes, Luther is better.

Several reviewers have called Luther: the Fallen Sun Elba’s "Bond audition", thanks to the number of audacious stunts involved, but when I mention this to Elba himself he laughs, sticking to the line that he has no interest in playing the spy.

"My Bond audition? Oh my God, no! I’ve been saying for years, no!” But, he adds, “The martini line is a bit cheeky, isn’t it? I was like, ‘Neil, are you sure you want to put that in?'"

Does Elba agree with Cross that Luther is better than Bond?

"Not 'better', no," he says carefully. "Luther’s equally engaging, equally sexy and great to see visually. But Bond is from a universe where espionage was the way to capture. Luther is from the world where you bang on the door, 'Are you in there? I’m coming in.' I think Luther fits with a bit more of a modern-day bad guy as opposed to someone from the taking-over-the-world style."

If I had expected an eyeroll from Elba in response to my question about Bond, or a world-weariness during what must be his thousandth interview promoting the show, I am wrong.

"Wotcha," I mutter as I shake his hand, in reference to Luther’s catchphrase. "Sorry, I bet everyone says that."

"No," Elba chuckles warmly. "They don’t, actually. Wotcha. I like it."

And our interview continues in the same vein, with not a hint of boredom. Indeed, his eyes are shining with excitement as we chat about his return to the role.

"That character is so well written," he says. "You could have Luther opening an envelope for 10 minutes and you’d still go, ‘Oh my God, what’s in the envelope?’ because he’s just that kind of character. It’s still exciting to me because we’re not talking about season 1 of Luther. It’s evolved and grown and we’ve got bigger and braver."

The movie, in cinemas then on Netflix, opens with Luther still in prison after he was banged up at the end of the fourth season. The beginning of the film sets up the story: Luther had promised the mother of a kidnapped young man that he would find the killer but failed to do so before being imprisoned.

While incarcerated, he sees a TV report about a serial killer and, believing he can finally solve the crime and keep his promise to the mum, he stages a prison break out and tracks down the murderer (played by Andy Serkis) while on the run.

There is a moment about half an hour into the film where Luther dumps his prison uniform and dons his iconic tweed coat before standing on a rooftop overlooking London’s skyline. A clear nod to the show’s inspiration, Batman, his coat tails are even flapping in the breeze like a cape.

I tell Elba I cheered aloud at that scene, and ask when he first felt the rush of being Luther again.

"That moment," he says, "because that’s one of the anchors of the show, isn’t it? Being above London, looking out at the town. It’s a trope, that coat and standing on the rooftop. It’s sort of become a national treasure.

"Although, I don’t want to ruin it for you, but the flappy cape moment was very hard to actually orchestrate. It wasn’t very superhero. I had a guy under me with a leaf blower and that didn’t work so in the end we had to get some string!

"But that was a great little moment when I was like, 'Man, we made it.'"

Such small moments are like Easter eggs for long-standing fans of the show, but there is plenty for newcomers, too.

Upgrading from TV to film means several things: it’s darker than ever (or "pretty gnarly", as Elba puts it); more outrageous ("He takes some liberties, doesn’t he?"); and there are huge stunts, including an icy underwater sequence, burning buildings, an epic chase through the London Underground and a huge set piece at tourist hotspot Piccadilly Circus (where they were allowed to film for longer than any other production in history).

For Elba, it was a thrilling opportunity.

"I was in Dagenham in a tank, 10 feet underwater, and I had to have a chuckle to myself like, 'What have you got yourself into this time, Luther?' I did a lot of prep both mentally and physically because it’s really tiring being John, he’s relentless. Stunts
or no stunts, you’re constantly shooting in the pouring rain at four o’clock in the morning.

"I’m like, 'Can we do a story in the Caribbean?' Mind you, it would still be raining if we did – that’s just part of the texture of Luther."

The Fallen Sun does take Luther away from London for the first time ever, though, to an epic Norwegian snowscape after Luther tracks the killer down to a hideaway for reasons I won’t spoil. Cross says he and the team made up long lists of places Luther wouldn’t look right (Los Angeles, too glamorous and sunny) and places he could go to (Mexico City, suitably edgy).

"The history of moving from TV to bigger screens is not a happy one," Cross reflects, "but that’s because they get a bit more money and immediately take them out of that world and send them somewhere else. We were clear that whatever we did had to belong to the same territory that we’d established in the TV series. It couldn’t be Luther in Marbella. It still had to smell and sound and feel like Luther."

Cross tells me there were sleepless nights and tears in the run-up to the production, and huge nerves about whether it would translate to the big screen.

That anxiety was shared by Elba, though he disagrees that the location itself was important: "We could take him out of Luther-land, drop him in Thailand, and he’s still going to have that grit. He carries a bit of rain everywhere he goes.

"[But] of course you could get it wrong and it would be devastating because everybody would be like, ‘It was a great show, why did you need to do that?’

"For those who knew it on the BBC it’s our little thing. I felt like I was giving my baby away. We know the fans love it, it’s just whether they love this iteration of it. The audience are smart. They expect Luther to be really, really good. You’re not allowed to be a bit rubbish, you’ve got to keep that standard up all the time. And we want a new audience to love it, too."

Veteran viewers may be disappointed to learn there is no sign of fan favourite Alice Morgan, the charming and ingenious psychopath killer (played by Ruth Wilson) who captured Luther’s heart in previous seasons.

But Cross says he would not rule out bringing her back in a later film, despite the fact she seemingly died at the end of the TV series; and Elba agrees. "I don’t think anyone can replace Alice in Luther’s heart," he says. "I think as storytellers we are custodians of something that a lot of people also own, and Alice is a big part of that.

"I think we all want to see that happen but you’ve got to be careful not to do it badly. There’s an idea, but I don’t want to over-speak because I think Neil wants to own it.

"I think it would be amazing. She takes our breath away. Alice on her own is a show, so just imagine her coming into this scape."

As for the future, nothing is confirmed, and Elba is by no means tapping his fingers waiting for a sequel. When he isn’t developing screen projects with his own production company, devoting time to charity as an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust or travelling the world for DJ-ing duties – he spun the discs at the 2018 wedding reception of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – he is at home co-hosting a podcast with his wife Sabrina called Coupledom.

However, it seems highly likely there will be more Luther films to come, and Idris confirms he will always be happy to carve off time for the character. Although nothing is confirmed, another big screen outing is almost certainly in the offing.

"I can see us doing a three-hour film one day," he says. "Doing a film gives us time to really unpeel John like an onion. I want to know so much more about him: where’s his dad, what toll has his wife’s death taken on him? Films give us the space to explore that."

If Luther was popular in 2010 when he first hit our screens, this superhero character, whose unique selling point is his unerring sense of belief in good triumphing over evil, he will surely resonate in 2023 in a country that has lost confidence in the government and police forces alike.

Elba nods. "Luther’s superpower is conviction. He’s going to get there, no matter what it takes.

"Fiction plays a massive role in our absorption of the real world. We can live in escapism just so we can breathe or be scared or let out some anger or some laughter, and Luther does sit in that space at a crucial time. It’s just entertainment but, come on guys, don’t we want people like that in our lives? People who will break out of prison to keep a promise. Don’t we want people like that, a little bit?

"The success of Luther speaks to the fact that no matter what the world goes through, there are certain types of people that we all gravitate to. People we feel safe around, we want that."

Luther: The Fallen Sun will arrive on Netflix from Friday 10th March. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

You can stream Luther on BBC iPlayer now. Check out more of our Film and Drama coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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