Luther: The Fallen Sun writer hints at potential Alice return

10 Mar 2023

Radio Times

While fans of Luther will no doubt be delighted to see Idris Elba's iconic character back on our screens, returning in new Netflix film Luther: The Fallen Sun, they may be disappointed that a fan-favourite character does not make a return.

Ruth Wilson's Alice Morgan, a serial killer with whom John had a deeply mixed-up relationship, plummeted to the floor from a platform in a construction site at the end of season 5, with some believing the character may have perished.

Alice does not show up in Luther: The Fallen Sun, not helping to assuage fans of this fear. In fact, the only characters from the series who made the transition to the film adaptation were Dermot Crowley's DSU Martin Schenk and Elba's Luther himself.

RadioTimes.com caught up exclusively with the film's writer Neil Cross and director Jamie Payne to ask whether there was ever an intention to include other characters from the Luther series, such as Paul McGann's Mark North.

Cross said: "I think fan-service is a sugar high. And I think it's very tempting for any filmmaker, any writer to do. Just say, 'Let's see Mark crossing the street.' But I think it's essentially meretricious and it doesn't respect the engagement of the returning audience with the universe. It’s too cheap.

"And also, I think it would be discourteous to the new audience, who see something which they know means something but they don't know what it is."

Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson in Luther. Robert Viglasky/BBC

Cross continued: "That, to me, is like the cool kids in the corner who arbitrarily lace their trainers in a particular way that makes you the in-group or out-group. We are more welcoming than that.

"But that is not to say that these characters are not still alive and very much part of the universe. And it's not to say that we might not meet them at some point in the future."

Asked specifically whether we could see a return for Alice someday, the film's director Jamie Payne added: "I think the great thing, and again it leans into the Mark North thing, is like, ‘Well, if we're going to introduce a new audience to our central character, how many of those incredible satellites do you want to put into the story?’

"And I think that does apply to Alice, who is such an incredible story companion, in so many ways, to the Luther series. The whole idea that Alice and Mark and others exist there within the Luther universe potentially – that thought is exciting."

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Cross then added teasingly: "Like Ruth said, we never saw a body," to which Payne concurred: "We never saw a body. And that is exciting. I think, as a Luther fan, it's exciting that those stories are out there to be explored potentially.”