Despite his fiery temper and tendency to break the law when it suits him, detective inspector John Luther is a risk the BBC is more than willing to take at this point. And that is why Idris Elba is back in the coat for a fifth series of “Luther,” the hit psychological police procedural.
BBC America announced Thursday that Elba bega filming the fifth installment of the series.
“It’s good to be back in London, back in the coat,” Elba said in a news release.
The first three series of the show were hugely popular, winning Elba a Golden Globe in 2012 and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2016. When “Luther” returned for a two-episode fourth season in December 2015, ratings were the biggest yet, but the reviews were lukewarm.
That hesitancy may partly have been because fans were clamoring for more from Luther’s intellectual foil and criminal mega-mind Alice Mo’rgan (Ruth Wilson). Alice’s fate was sealed (or was it?) in season 4, but when the BBC announced the start of filming on Thursday, there was no word on who would represent the dark side for the upcoming four-episode series. The network did confirm the return of Luther’s investigative partners, DSU Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley) and Benny Silver (Michael Smiley), plus the addition of new recruit DS Catherine Halliday (Wunmi Mosaku, “Black Mirror”).
Series creator Neil Cross left the door open to other returns, however, when he said, “We missed John Luther. We missed some old friends. And we wanted to make the biggest, scariest, darkest, most thrilling series of Luther there’s ever been.”
It’s hard to imagine “Luther” at it’s dark and scary best without Alice Morgan, but regardless, it should be a wild ride.
