Last January, BBC crime drama Luther returned for what appears to have been its final season. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve seen the last of its eponymous detective. Leading man Idris Elba remains passionate about getting a Luther movie off the ground and at a press junket for the new season of his Sky comedy In the Long Run, Elba teased that he’s “this close” to bringing the character to the big screen.
“I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see Luther come back as a film. And I can tell you this, that we are this close to making a film of Luther.”
With the regular series now finished, it’s possible more space has opened up to get a movie made. And if it’s as close to getting green-lit as Elba says it is, we may not be waiting much longer. That said, you only have to look at the endless rumours about Doctor Who – another BBC show – getting a film adaptation to know that they can get trapped in development hell.
Of course, those that do get made can yield great results. Political satire The Thick Of It successfully crossed over with In the Loop (admittedly more of an extended episode of the show than an outright movie) and the same can be said for Breaking Bad’s El Camino. Some do carry over as cinema, though. The Simpsons Movie benefited from a blockbuster budget, while at the other end of the spectrum Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit knocked it out of the park with timeless animation and surprisingly poignant storytelling.
For Luther fans, hopefully any movie that gets made hues closer to the names mentioned above as opposed to say, The Harry Hill Movie (oh god), or Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie (please stop), or even Keith Lemon: The Film (why are you doing this to us?). Not those. Anything but those. Nobody deserves to have such misbegotten claptrap foisted upon them.
