Idris Elba believes John Luther could be the next James Bond
He might have missed out on playing James Bond, but Idris Elba believes that Luther: The Fallen Sun has the potential to catalyse a 007-style, multi-film franchise with the titular detective at its heart.
Elba debuted as John Luther back in 2010, when the first series aired on BBC One. The actor is set to reprise the role for a forthcoming Netflix movie based on the gritty TV drama. During a conversation with Total Film [via GamesRadar], the actor said Luther had the cultural clout of a Marvel “superhero”.
Discussing the new Luther film, Elba said: “I reference Bond as a template for the type of film we’re going for,” Elba explained. “John is a leading character in a film that he’s the hero of. That’s the comparison I’m making. Some films do them well – Bond is one of them.”
He added: “But my ambition for it is to have that sort of scale, that reverence. I want people to be like: ‘Ooh! Luther, the first film? Wicked.’ And to continue that. And then maybe later down the line, when I’m too old, someone else will step in to play John.”
Luther: The Fallen Sun is set to pick up where the TV series left off, following the “brilliant but disgraced” London detective John Luther as he “breaks out of prison to hunt down a serial killer stalking the city”.
According to Elba, the showrunners are “desperate to take Luther out of Luther-land, and put him in the big world. I think that’s a really important characteristic of scale and growth in our films,” he continued. “I mean, can you just imagine John in Colombia, or darkest Berlin where it’s really weird and underground? Luther could go to America if we want to do that. That, to me, is exciting. And taking the rules of Luther-land and transposing them to different environments is really exciting for us.”
Directed by Jamie Payne from a screenplay by Neil Cross, Luther: The Fallen Sun is slated for release on Netflix in March.
