Idris Elba got to explore more of his famous TV character Luther in new Netflix film

LOS ANGELES – Idris Elba’s career has spanned superhero films such as Thor (2011 to 2022), the first three seasons of acclaimed crime drama The Wire (2002 to 2008) and playing South African icon Nelson Mandela in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (2013).

But the 50-year-old says his role as John Luther, a brilliant police detective who flirts with the dark side as he hunts down serial killers and other sociopathic criminals, taps into something none of his other characters have.

The British actor reprises the role in the new movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, a continuation of the British psychological crime thriller Luther (2010 to 2019), which is streaming on Netflix.

The series introduced Elba as the titular detective chief inspector for London’s Metropolitan Police who often crosses ethical lines as he investigates difficult and troubling cases – a role that earned the star four Emmy nominations.

Speaking to The Straits Times over video chat, Elba says the character stands apart from every other that he has played.

“I think this is a guy who is completely obsessed, and I’ve had five seasons over 10 years of being able to get under the skin of who he is.”

And compared with the hourly episodes of the series, a feature-length film gave Elba and the show’s writer-creator Neil Cross the ability to “really slow things down and get to know who Luther is”.

Elba says: “There are lots of quiet moments in this film where you’re literally watching Luther’s thought process and understanding how he puts things together.

“In a TV landscape, you don’t really have the time to do that – you want things to move along.”

In the film, which co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis, Luther is on the heels of another sadistic serial killer, only this time, he finds himself on the wrong side of the law and ends up in prison, which makes the character more vulnerable than he has ever been.

“One thing that people in law enforcement don’t really project is how scary it is being on one side of the law. You almost always feel like a target because you go to work, you put your uniform on, but when you go home, as far as anyone else is concerned, you still represent the other side of the law,” Elba explains.

“So this film really shows that’s a vulnerable state to be in. We get to explore, while Luther’s in jail, how he’s just like everyone else in there and they don’t like him.”

He adds: “And there’s really no one to protect him in there.”

Cross, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, says Luther is equal parts his and Elba’s creation, and that the actor improvises many moments that are not on the page.

“Idris and I have joint custody of this character – he springs equally from both of us, but doesn’t fully belong to either of us,” says the 54-year-old British scribe, who has also worked on British hits such as spy drama Spooks (2002 to 2011) and cult science-fiction show Dr Who (1963 to present).

“But he brought an incalculable amount to the character simply by dint of the fact that he’s Idris Elba,” Cross adds.

“He gave him a sense of moral responsibility, the great weight of his essential wound and access to a level of tenderness that very few actors have.”

With the film, Elba, Cross and director Jamie Payne also got to go bigger in terms of action scenes.

Payne, who worked on Luther Season 5, says there were ideas they toyed with for the show “that didn’t make it because we just couldn’t achieve them in the balance of resources”.

“We had just over two weeks to film each episode, so anything like the major centre set piece we have in this film would have taken too much.”

And Cross says the movie let them “take a character we know so well and put him under pressure in different kinds of circumstances”.

“And part of the fun is being able to have that kind of, ‘Oh my god, what would happen if...’ conversation.”

Luther: The Fallen Sun is available on Netflix.