Fans of BBC’s triumphant crime drama Luther may have more to look forward to than just the upcoming third season – as series creator Neil Cross is in preliminary talks with the BBC to produce a spin-off miniseries based on sexy psychopathic sidekick Alice Morgan. Should the offshoot take place it would follow the misadventures of the sultry antihero’s in the United States and won’t feature the gruff but lovable John Luther right away. However, Cross is open to the idea of him appearing in future Alice-centric miniseries.
Luther centers on the life of brilliant but troubled Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) who returns to duty following a seven month suspension for beating a child killer into a coma. Despite his keen ability to solve crimes his frequent and often violent fits of rage has driven a wedge between him and most of the department, as well as his estranged wife Zoe (Indira Varma).
Like Luther, the charismatically creepy Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) possesses a genius-level intellect – only her tendencies take a significantly darker turn as she leans more to calculated murder than blind rage. Alice first enters Luther’s radar when she assassinates her own parents – but the two soon develop a mutual respect that turns into a bizarre sort of friendship.
Although scheduling conflicts led the character to a downgrade on Luther, Alice became wildly popular among fans. In a recently interview with Variety, Luther creator and executive producer Neil Cross spoke about his confidence in the Alice-centered miniseries:
“The BBC is very interested in the project! The truth is I absolutely adore Alice! We’re kind of thinking very loosely of a mix between ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ and ‘The Last Seduction,’…I’d love to move between the London of ‘Luther’ and America. The only real question would be how many and how often we would do it — whether it would be a one-off miniseries or a returning miniseries, a co-production or not. Even if I didn’t sell this thing, I would still end up writing the miniseries. It’s something peculiar, but she’s far more clever than me, far more witty than me, far more everything than me.”
In regards to Luther hitting the big screen for a feature film, Cross also indicated that it was more a matter of when than if the project would take place:
“We’ve got lots and lots of movie interest, and Idris and I (are being) very careful about what kind of movie we choose to do. We’ve got all kinds of criteria of how and when we should do the movie, and we just need to pick our offer carefully. But I’d love to do it next year.”
Elba’s movie commitment currently lies with the filming of the upcoming sequel Thor: The Dark World as the Asgardian gatekeeper Heimdall. Thor 2 is set for release on November 8, 2013, so if both Elba and Cross plan correctly the Luther movie could line up nicely.
Luther won Idris Elba a Golden Globe Award last year for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film and this year the series was deservedly nominated for several Emmys. The third and final season of Luther has officially been commissioned by the BBC, although no schedule has yet to be released.
–
Check back with us for more info on the upcoming final season of Luther and the killer Alice Morgan spin-off!
