Idris Elba's star has risen considerably over the years, with appearances in movies like PROMETHEUS, THOR, PACIFIC RIM, ZOOTOPIA, STAR TREK BEYOND and many others, but to me, the actor will always be DCI John Luther. As I was a little late to finally getting around to watching The Wire, BBC's Luther was my first big exposure to Idris Elba. Obsessive, brilliant, and occasionally violent, Luther is usually tasked with hunting down some of London's most dangerous killers, but his obsession makes it difficult to avoid becoming consumed by the darkness of the crimes he investigates.
It's been several years since the last all-too-brief season of Luther aired, but now BBC American have announced that Luther will be returning for a four-part fifth season which will begin filming in early 2018. Creator Neil Cross will naturally be returning to pen the series and, in a statement, seems to be looking forward to stepping back into the mind of John Luther.
Now what? It’s a question Idris and I get asked a lot. What happened to John Luther after we last saw him striding unbowed through the streets of his city, his blood red London? It can’t be over, can it? There’s so much we don’t know. So much unfinished business. The thing is, we’ve been asking ourselves the same question. Because we love John and wonder what he’s up to. And as for me, I’m scared of the monsters. The face at the window. The hand under the bed. The shadow at the end of the street. Who’s going to stop them, if not John Luther? In the end, we picked up the phone to some old friends and asked if they’d like to find out what happens next. It turns out, they would. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to find out what happens next. Now what? Luther’s coming back. That’s what.
Idris Elba added that, "Neil, the BBC and I have been talking about a further season and I am thrilled that we have been able to bring it all together. I look forward to putting the coat back on." It'd be entirely understandable if Elba was too busy to make any time for the series, but I'm thrilled that the stars have aligned and we have four more hours of Luther to look forward to. Bring it on!
Idris Elba will next be seen as Roland Deschain in Nikolaj Arcel's THE DARK TOWER, the long-awaited adaptation of the Stephen King series in which Matthew McConaughey and Tom Taylor also star.
The official synopsis for THE DARK TOWER:
Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) is a young 11-year-old adventure seeker who discovers clues about another dimension called Mid-World. Upon following the mystery, he is spirited away to Mid-World where he encounters the lone frontiersman knight Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), who is on a quest to reach the ‘Dark Tower’ that resides in End-World and reach the nexus point between time and space that he hopes will save Mid-World from extinction. But with various monsters and a vicious sorcerer named Walter Padick (Matthew McConaughey) hot on their trail, the unlikely duo find that their quest may be difficult to complete.
THE DARK TOWER is set for an August 4, 2017 release.