Idris Elba to return as Luther as Netflix officially announces movie with Andy Serkis and Cynthia Erivo

The film will be written by Neil Cross, the creator of the BBC drama which aired on BBC One from 2010 until 2019.

Outlander's Jamie Payne is set to director the film, developed by Netflix in association with the BBC.

Elba, who recently starred as Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad, has played DCI John Luther in all five series of Luther, however neither Cynthia Erivo, (Harriet, Widows, Chewing Gum), nor Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars) have appeared in the BBC series before.

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Last October, Luther creator Cross teased a potential Luther film, telling RadioTimes.com that he would definitely "make more Luther", while earlier this year, the writer confirmed that the movie was happening and would be "bigger and better" than the original TV series.

"I was interested in adapting the prequel, because I thought it’d be a cool way to [approach it],” he said. “But, no, we’re going to do something bigger and better."

"What we’ve been able to do [with the movie] – having delivered every episode of Luther on budgets which are comically small – is to have a wider canvas and a bigger budget to tell the kind of stories that we’ve always wanted to be able to tell. And we’ve really been given the opportunity – while staying entirely true," he added.

Luther is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Visit our Drama hub for the latest news or find something to watch with our TV Guide.