Idris Elba’s Luther is in the headlines again as BBC’s Diversity Chief says that the character lacks a bit of authentic Black representation. Following the extended dialogues about the entertainment industry and its relationship to POC, there has been a wide push from within networks to address the imbalances that exist. In some comments to The Hollywood Reporter, BBC’s Miranda Wayland ended up drawing the ire of some commenters when she alleged that Elba’s character didn’t have enough Black friends. She also argued that he might have benefitted from eating Caribbean food in the series as well. People could understand some of that, but it still came off as a bit tone-deaf. Fans argued that the Black experience in any country couldn’t be boiled down to culinary experiences. Check out what she had to say down below:
Videos by ComicBook.com
“When it first came out everybody loved the fact that Idris Elba was in there — a really strong, Black character lead,” Wayland told the publication. “We all fell in love with him. Who didn’t, right? But after you got into, about, the second series you got kind of like, OK, he doesn’t have any Black friends, he doesn’t eat any Caribbean food, this doesn’t feel authentic.”
Back at the BAFTA Awards last year, the lead man maintained that plans for the Luther movie were still in the cards. However, there hasn’t been a ton said about this in the months since then.
“I’ve maintained I’d like to see it come to a film, and that is where I think we are heading towards — a film,” Elba tjoked. “And I’m looking forward to making that happen. It is happening. With film, the sky is the limit. You can be a little bit more bold with the storylines. And a little bit more international, and a little more up the scale. But John Luther is always going to be John Luther.”
The series star previously tried to offer some insight into the film, “has all the ingredients to echo those classic films of the ’90s like Seven and Along Came A Spider and I think what we’d like to attempt is use that as a blueprint to create it. It will be more murder, more Volvos, more frowning Luther. Essentially we just want to try and take it to a much bigger remit and scale and perhaps international as well.”
Do you still want more Luther? Let us know down in the comments!
