Idris Elba is set to reprise the role of DCI John Luther in a Netflix movie based on the hit BBC detective drama, and he thinks they can keep fans of the TV show happy while taking the story and characters “into a new sphere.”
“We have an incredible appetite to satisfy – the audience that loves ‘Luther’ in its current form as a TV show, [and] also bring it into a new sphere with the film version,” the 49-year-old actor told Collider. “I don’t wanna be controversial, but people imagine me as Bond, and that’s great, but I can’t wait for them to see me as Luther in this movie. Really, our ambition is to take it there.”
Before the Luther film hits, Elba can be seen in Netflix’s new all-Black Western ‘The Harder They Fall’, currently at No. 1 in the US. He wasn’t surprised by the quality of the film and admits he was delighted with the timing and response to the release. The cast includes Regina King, Jonathan Majors, Deon Coles, Lakeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, Damon Wayans Jr. and more.
“We expected this, you know? I can say this to [writer and director Jeymes Samuel] … we didn’t expect it to hit in the way it has. This film has been brewing for a long time, but the climate of where the world is, and the appetite for something like this, we could not have written,” Elba explained.
“It’s Black History Month in the UK, and here you have a Western with Black characters that people don’t even know about and forgot about. It hit so hard here,” Elba continued. “We couldn’t have expected that, but … from the first time when he’s telling you about a scene, takes his guitar and starts singing the score, we expected it to be what it is.”
