Luther: The Fallen Sun Villain Andy Serkis Reveals Why He Almost Turned Down the Role

Andy Serkis is no stranger to playing villains, having taken on the role of Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars and Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s also dabbled in dark, heavy characters, he’s take on Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and even Caesar in the Planet of the Apes franchise clear ear marks of that. In the recently released Luther: The Fallen Sun though Serkis play his most devious and demented role yet. Starring opposite Idris Elba, Serkis’ David Robey is a twisted serial killer with an army of digital soldiers at his disposal, helping him accomplish anything he wishes. But even for Serkis the entire character was nearly a bridge too far. 

Speaking with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis, Serkis revealed what helped him dig into the mind of this character to prepare for the part, revealing to us that he originally wanted nothing to do with the part because of how dark it is. “First of all, when I read it, I almost didn’t do it because this is literally one of the darkest characters I think I played in terms of, how to kind of find a way into him which is relatable to. So I literally threw the script in the bin and wanted to have a shower, it was dark. Then I started to think about what it’s actually saying. And the real monster of this piece really is, I think, the internet and us, and what we have done to hand over responsibility to this monster that we’ve created. And David Robey in a sense is just the conduit to that.”

He continued, “He is this faceless, isolated, lonely sort of nothingness really. And without the power that he has taken, because it’s been given to him by what everybody has done. We’ve all brought into this world basically of deep fakes and the dark web and ai and all the devices that we’ve become so utterly dependent. So yes, he is a despicable character, but he’s a product of now. And really, I think the great thing about Neil Cross, the writer and the whole Luther ethos as a series and now as a movie  is about the normality of the monster. And that’s, and that’s what’s, that’s why I kind of really bought into it, I suppose, ultimately.”

Luther: The Fallen Sun is now streaming on Netflix, and is the #1 movie on the platform.