Idris Elba Reveals His "Hardest Role Ever" and It's Not What You Think

Luther: The Fallen Sun star Idris Elba has revealed his "hardest role ever" and it's one that might surprise you. Speaking with ET Canada (via People), Elba said that being named People's Sexiest Man alive in 2018 was his hardest role ever, even more challenging than Luther or playing Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad. What made the role so challenging? For Elba, it was the photographs.

Elba explained that the issue for him was the photographs, with the actor saying he doesn't "always photograph great" but he went on to note that the photographer he worked with for his Sexiest Man Alive cover, David Burton, knew just what to do.

"I said to the photographer, 'I don't always photograph great in pictures, this picture needs to be great,'" Elba said. "[They're like] 'No, no, no. We've done this a million times, we know how to do it.' And I was like, 'Ok, I'll just be me.' Then they do this sort of thing where they make your favorite camera angle work for the cover."

What is Luther: The Fallen Sun about?

A feature film continuation of BBC's Luther, which ran for five seasons between 2010 and 2019, the film is described as follows: "In Luther: The Fallen Sun — an epic continuation of the award-winning television saga reimagined for the film — a gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther (Idris Elba) sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary."

Will there be more Luther films?

Speaking with ComicBook.com's Liam Crowley at the Luther: The Fallen Sun premiere, Elba noted that the advantage of bringing this franchise to the big screen revolves around the story's scope.

"The luxury starts with just having more space to tell a bigger story without breaking it up into episodics," Elba said. "Now we have this massive landscape [and] a bit of a bigger budget. We have more time to get under it. I've always dreamed about what we could do with Luther as a film, outside of 'Luther Land' in London, where can we take it?"

The Fallen Sun does just that, as Luther and company venture across the United Kingdom and into Estonia. If Elba gets his way, that expansion will continue in future Luther sequels.

"Now we have the opportunity. This film, I'm really hoping it's the first of many," Elba added.

Luther: The Fallen Sun is now streaming on Netflix.