by A stand-alone movie requires a singular villain, and Luther: The Fallen Sun has just that. Yes, Idris Elba’s former DCI has gone up against a number of memorable failures over the years, but the film will turn it up a notch.
The killer – who has had room to roam while Luther has been beaten up – is millionaire David Robey (Andy Serkis), a man who taps into the zeitgeist’s fear of our technology spying on us and the potential of the dark web. Robey has tangled with Luther before and been ignored. Now using technology as surveillance, he discovers secrets that enable him to manipulate others. “If you and I had a big secret that we don’t want anyone to know, he loves the idea that he can be like, ‘I know what it is. Come over and do this for me,'” Elba explains in the new issue by Total Film (opens in a new tab).
“Robey really just comes from this tension between morality and ethics,” says Luther creator Neil Cross, admitting that all of his monsters are what he personally fears. “Real morality is the kind of behavior you show when you know no one is watching. But we’ve left a lot of that private behavior to the semi-private forum of the Internet. The things we’re ashamed of, the things we think we’re ashamed of think, people who would have lived isolated lives, but who may never express their desires or concerns—or interests, shall we say?—they find community. I’m terrified of the idea that someone, in fact, is watching.
“But no matter how broad our canvas is, there will always be this very special sense that the monster might come to you next. In a strange Freudian way, I’ve created a modern Arthurian knight who can come along and slay these dragons for me .”
The team knew they needed an actor who could go toe-to-toe with Elba’s Luther as an antagonist and sent the project to Andy Serkis for consideration. “When I first read the script, I almost wanted to throw it in the trash and take a shower,” says Serkis to Total Film (opens in a new tab). “I don’t think I’ve come across anything this dark in a long time. And I thought, “Actually, I really want to go down at this very point in my world and time and life. rabbit hole of something so hard to fathom in humanity?'”
Luther: The Fallen Sun arrives on Netflix in March 2023. For much more from Elba, Cross, director Jamie Payne, Serkis and co-star Cynthia Erivo, pick up a copy of the new edition of Total Film (opens in a new tab) when it hits newsagents (real and digital) on Thursday 12 January. In addition to Luther, there is a ranking of the best screen detectives, features on Knock at the Cabin, Cocaine Bear, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, The Fabelmans and much more.
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