‘Luther’ Creator Says His Story Isn’t Over, Pursuing ‘Lots Of Avenues’ For Film

Even though Luther‘s series finale aired in July, creator Neil Cross insists his protagonist’s story is not over yet.

“I don’t think Alice (Ruth Wilson) and Luther’s (Idris Elba) story is over,” Cross said. “Which by definition means I can’t even give you so much as a hint.”

While Cross wasn’t giving up any hints, he did confirm that a Luther film is still an option he and Elba want to explore.

“There’s literally no news to report except we really want to do it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “And we’ve got lots of avenues that would allow us to do it.”

In a recent conference call with reporters, Elba had a few suggestions for how a prequel movie could be set up.

“I think the origin story is a classic superhero-type set-up, and I’ve always likened Luther to a superhero just because, as television makers, we bend the rules so much,” Elba said. “And so, yes, it would be interesting to understand where that came from and how do we end up in that first episode of Season 1 — that would be great and really exciting. But then, beyond that, [also] to pick up after Season 3 and figure out what happens next.”

Two weeks ago, at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Cross confirmed that Luther would be getting a prequel movie, hopefully by next year.

“Idris [Elba] is a brilliant leading man and we’ve hoped to turn Luther into a movie for a long time,” Cross said. “It will follow his career in the earlier days, when he is still married to Zoe (Indira Varma), and the final scene in the film is the first of the initial TV series.”

Cross also said that the series is “finished” because Elba has “gone on to be a big movie star,” but commended his star as a “f***ing astonishing actor.”

The third and final Luther series ran from July 2 to July 23 on BBC One, and made its US premiere last Tuesday.