Netflix’s upcoming movie Luther: The Fallen Sun has gotten a surprising rating. It’s been revealed that Luther: The Fallen Sun will be “Rated R for disturbing/violent content, language and some sexual material.”
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Luther has always kept one toe dipped into the deepest, darkest ends of the crime-thriller genre. The series stars Idris Elba as DCI John Luther, one of the more skilled profilers and investigators in London’s police force. Luther’s specialization (obesssion?) is tracking down the worst serial killers plaguing the London streets and bringing them to justice (or making sure they never kill again). Luther is so dedicated to his profession that it costs him everything in his personal life – friends, colleagues, lovers… often fatally. If that wasn’t complicated enough Luther’s only thriving personal connection turns out to be with one of the worst serial killers operating, Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson).
Luther creator Neil Cross (The Mosquito Coast) really helped Luther distinguish itself from so many other crime-drama investigative procedurals by featuring dark and frightening sequences of sadistic serial killers stalking, approaching and/or murdering their victims, in between scenes of Luther tracking them down. Certain killers have even come back around to target Luther and those close to him, resutling in some pretty hard gut-punch deaths of major supporting characters.
That’s all to say: Luther: The Fallen Sun sounds like it will be leaning heavily into the core appeal of the series, unincumbered by any broadcast TV restrictions imposed by BBC One and instead going with the more hardcore allowances of a movie’s R-rating.
Luther Season 5 ended with John Luther in his tightest spot ever. Alice Morgan left Luther stranded between the worlds of crime and law, by killing the son of London’s biggest gangster George Cornelius (Patrick Malahide), as well as Luther’s detective colleague and love interest, Catherine Halliday. Everything Luther used to define himself as a moral sevrvant of justice has been stripped away…
“If you watched the last season, it picks up after that. But for new audiences who haven’t seen it I think the film is, it’s a whole story, so even if you don’t know where Luther, who he is or what, anything about him, the film attempts to be whole for a new audience,” Idris Elba explained in an interview. “We just finished filming like about three weeks ago. It was a grim shoot. Oh my gosh. It’s all fun and games as I’m reading the script. I’m like, “And then he does what? Oh wow this is incredible,” and then I’m actually doing it. I find myself freezing in some dark cave or something. No spoilers.”
Luther: The Fallen Sun will star Andy Serkis (Star Wars: Andor, The Lord of the Rings) and Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale, Harriet). Erivo is playing a police detective who becomes “Luther’s nemesis”; Serkis will play “the story’s criminal villain,” which will presumably be another sadistic serial killer.
Luther: The Fallen Sun is going to stream on Netflix in March 2023.
