Idris Elba Confirms Luther is Headed to the Big Screen

Luther is heading to the big screen. Speaking with Variety, Idris Elba revealed that the show’s creator, Neil Cross, is currently hard at work on a script that would transport the popular crime fighter onto the silver screen after Season 5.

“We are really advancing on getting a movie version [of the show] up on the screen,” Elba said. “Neil is beavering away on writing this thing, and I think the remit for the film is to scale it up.” 

The actor explained he felt Luther had all the ingredients of a “classic Neo-noir” film from the 90s “like Seven and Along Came a Spider.”

“It will be more murder, more Volvos, more frowning Luther… essentially we just want to try to take it to a much bigger audience and scale, and perhaps international as well.” 

Elba believes that the film could travel beyond London, but feels the show would need to operate within the mysterious shadows of a large Gotham-esque city. Or, as he puts it, “Wherever there is crime Luther will go.”

The news confirms recent comments made by the actor when he said Season 5 would “segue” into a film; and that the season was deliberately written as a bridge, of sorts, to the larger picture.

First premiering in 2010, Luther stars Elba as the titular obsessive detective and has seen him gain a Golden Globe award, a Screen Actors Guild award, an NAACP Image Award, a Critics’ Choice Award, and four Emmy nominations.

Luther season five will air on the BBC sometime in 2019.