Luther fans should adore the new Netflix film, Luther: The Fallen Sun, but you don’t have to have seen the long-running series in order to see the movie.

Shadow and Act sat down with stars Idris Elba and Andy Serkis, as well as director Jamie Payne and writer Neil Cross, about the film continuation of the British TV staple.

The film continues the saga of John Luther as he tries to redeem his name and catch the villain that has slipped out of his grasp. This villain (Serkis), described as a “cyber psychopath,” is taunting Luther while the titular character wants to end this once and for all.

Luther: The Fallen Sun comes out a time where cyber security is increasingly talked about as society gets further and further into AI.

“For anyone that loves Luther or anyone that hasn’t met Luther yet, there’s one thing about the Luther franchise or world is that it’s always relatable crime,” Elba said told us. “It’s stuff that [makes] people go, ‘Oh wow, okay. There’s a guy under my bed–whoa [laughs].’ Like really relatable crimes’ And I think as we were thinking about the amplification into a film-scape, cyber crime just felt like a really easy low-hanging fruit to expand on. I think that one of the things that’s great about technology is that it connects you and I…long distances, right? It allows us to create things that we need help with. With AI, you can create and imagine stuff that you wouldn’t even think of, but it also leaves us a little vulnerable, because people will use that same technology for bad business. I see people being used in deepfakes in a way that’s very negative to them. I think coming into this film, if you’ve never met Luther, you’re gonna see a subject that is relatable. You’re gonna see a man, a character, a detective that cares.”

Franchise newcomer Cynthia Erivo stars in the film, and Elba gushed about working with her.

“I just love that she’s the direct opposite of him, but equally as powerful, and [we have] this phenomenal female character to take over from his role as DCI,” said Elba. “And, you know, Cynthia hasn’t played a character like this, so it was great to just watch her disappear into Odette, unbeknownst that she has a lot of in common with Odette coming from where she comes from and just being able to be that person in her natural self. But she’s an amazing actor and has a lot of sort of depth and power.”

Watch the full interview above.

andy serkis