Idris Elba reignites calls for a Luther film: ‘We are this close to making it’

Idris Elba says that Luther is “this close” to becoming a film as he teased a potential movie adaptation of the crime drama.

Speaking to Sky News, Elba said that while there wasn’t “a real formal plan” for the show’s future in place “at the moment”, a film was definitely still on the horizon.

“I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see Luther come back as a film,” he said. “And I can tell you this, that we are this close to making a film of Luther.”

The BBC crime drama Luther ran for five seasons from 2010 to 2019 and starred Elba as DCI John Luther, while Ruth Wilson played Alice Morgan.

Elba last alluded to the project in 2018, when he confirmed that creator Neil Cross was working on a script for a film adaptation that he hoped would echo movies such as David Fincher’s 1995 crime thriller, Seven.

“We are really advancing on getting a movie version up on the screen,” he said, adding: “Neil is beavering away on writing this thing, and I think the remit for the film is to scale it up.

“I think what we would like to do is use that blueprint to create Luther: the film. It will be more murder, more Volvos, more frowning Luther… essentially we just want to try to take it to a much bigger audience and scale, and perhaps international as well.”