Lucifer star Tom Ellis is at San Diego Comic-Con to celebrate, not mourn, thanks to Netflix‘s decision to save the show after Fox’s cancellation. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ellis shared the one big change during the leap from broadcast TV to streaming.
“I’m excited about the fact that we are 10 episodes now as opposed to 22, which means we can get right down to the storytelling, and every episode will count,” Ellis told the magazine Friday. “From my point of view as an actor, that’s great.”
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While there will be less episodes for season four, Ellis assured fans the show will not drastically change. The reasons why the show got to season four will not be erased.
“One of the things that we have to be careful about as well is that the reason the show was so popular was because of the way it was,” Ellis explained to Entertainment Weekly. “We don’t want to mess around too much with that.”
There could be another big change though, now that Ellis and the writers no longer have to worry about the limitations of broadcast.
“Obviously, there are certain different boundaries that we can play within now,” the actor said. “I think Joe Henderson, our showrunner, has been adamant that he wants to have my bum on screen for three seasons and now we can finally do that.”
Lucifer was cancelled in May, a few days before its season finale aired on May 14. Two bonus episodes aired back-to-back on May 28, earning just 2.6 million viewers and a 0.5 18-49 rating, hardly enough to convince Fox to reverse its decision.
On June 15, Netflix swooped in to save the show, keeping in mind that it has been a hit in international markets.
Fans felt a sense of urgency to get the show back on since the season three finale ended with a big cliffhanger. In the end, Lucifer (Ellis) revealed his true identity to Chloe (Lauren German), the police detective he solved crimes with.
Henderson told ComicBook.com he felt the finale was “the best episode of teleivision I’ve ever made, just full stop.”
“I love it,” Henderson continued. “I got to write a mixture of a play and an action movie. I thought the entire cast just brought it. The only regret I have about the episode is that DB and Tricia aren’t in it. But they did such incredible work they did in the previous episode that Ildy wrote – it was satisfying. And I guess, them not being in the finale also gave us room to dig deeper with our other characters: Ella and her fate, Dan and his breaking point, and of course Lucifer and Chloe.”
In an interview with TVLine last month, co-showrunner Ildy Modrovich said there was no plan to change the arc of the fourth season, even with a shorter series order. It “lets us concentrate the story and focus it, and that’s what’s really exciting about this. We have a really strong first half that is now going to make for an amazing story,” Modrovich explained.
They also plan to stick with episode runtimes around 43 minutes.
The new episodes will also introduce “a character from Lucifer’s past who will ‘bring a whole new dimension to everything,’” Henderson told TVLine.
Netflix has not announced a premiere date for the season, but production is expected to start next month.
Photo credit: Fox
