Lucifer Star Tom Ellis Reveals How He Helped Save Series From Cancellation

It's one of entertainment's more interesting comeback stories, at least in terms of television series. After running for three seasons on Fox, the fan-favorite series Lucifer was canceled only to be saved by Netflix for a fourth season, then the streamer renewed it for what was supposed to be a "fifth and final" only for the series to get a surprise sixth season renewal, ending its run in 2021. For fans of the series, this was a fantastic turn of events that let them properly see the beloved show to completion, but it runs out series star Tom Ellis had a major hand in helping save the series.

In an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast (via PopCulture), Ellis revealed that he got the news that Lucifer had been cancelled while he was at a convention and broke the news himself on social media — and soon after, fan love just poured in and that led to him talking more and more about the show.

"Eventually, l got a call later that weekend from a guy called Peter Roth, who was head of Warner Bros. TV. Warner Bros. was our studio, and they made it for Fox," Ellis explained. "And he said, 'Tom, I want you to know, we're not ignoring all this stuff that's happening on social media. We are gonna try and do something about it.' And so I said, 'What do you need me to do?' And he said, 'Can you get over here to LA, keep soaking the fire as it was?' So, I got myself to Heathrow Airport, and I had a message from BBC News Night. And they said that they had been noticing what was happening on social media… about the show. Did I want to appear as a guest on the show to talk about that and to talk about television changing and all these things, and I was like, 'Absolutely.'"

"So, I got to LA, and then I ended up doing like a studio bit back to London about this, and for the next kind of week and a half, two weeks, it just became like all I talked about, and all people were asking me about," Ellis continued. "And then, you know, a couple weeks later, I'd sort of been tipped off from Peter that things were progressing well and then we got the Netflix announcement and it was the most vindicating, wonderful experience and I didn't feel quite so bad about pressing send on that tweet."

Lucifer Became a Huge Hit After Cancellation

While Lucifer was a fan favorite on Fox when it was cancelled, the series ended up being very popular once it was picked up by Netflix. The series went on to consistently be one of the streamer's most-streamed series, something the series showrunners found "odd and fabulous."

"It's very, very odd and fabulous," Ildy Modrovich told ComicBook.com previously. "I mean, we were just in our little devil-solving-crimes bubble, not knowing that anybody was really watching. We kind of had no idea, and then when we got canceled, and everybody rose up in the great war to bring us back. We were stunned. We were talking about it earlier, but it's like we became fans of the show, because the fans were so impassioned. It was infectious. We were like, 'They love it! We do too!' And we just got more and more excited to bring them things. We would be in the room going, 'Oh, they're going to love this,' or 'Oh, no, no, no, no. That'll piss them off. Let's not do that.' We were so protective of it, because people were so moved by our show, or loved it so much."

What do you think about Ellis' role in saving Lucifer? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!