Get ready, DCIs: The sublimely gloomy, award-winning crime series Luther is back for a fifth season in 2019, and a number of fan favorites will return to the scene of the crime.
First up, of course, is Idris Elba, who dons his rumpled grey overcoat as the brooding and brilliant DCI John Luther. Elba's profile has skyrocketed since Luther's debut in 2010; the brevity of Luther season four (just two episodes) was due in part to Elba's increasingly busy schedule. His return is welcome news to Luther fans—and, fingers crossed, will finally convince Her Majesty's Secret Service to enlist Elba as the next James Bond.
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Show creator Neil Cross is also back to helm the season's dark and twisted narrative. The Emmy-nominated mind behind Luther and Hulu's A Hard Sun has published a number of books, from thrilling crime fiction like Captured, Luther: The Calling, and Mr. In-Between to the memoir Heartland, which was shortlisted for the PEN/Acerkley Prize for literary autobiography of excellence.
In announcing the Luther renewal in June 2017, Cross teased the inevitability of a fifth season: "It can’t be over, can it? There’s so much we don’t know... The hand under the bed. The shadow at the end of the street. Who’s going to stop them, if not John Luther."
As the latest trailer proves, no one is better suited for the task:
Joined by new recruit DS Catherine Halliday (played by Wunmi Mosaku), DCI John Luther is called on once again to hunt down a killer prowling the streets of London. The glimpses of our presumed antagonist are decidedly nightmarish—the suspect is seen wearing a grinning plastic mask, standing naked in a dank room, and slithering up the aisle of a late-night bus. As the bodies pile up and the investigation uncovers an increasingly tangled web of false leads and lies, the duo is forced to do whatever it takes to catch their killer. At one point, Halliday asks, "How are we supposed to find him? The previous murders, they don't tell us anything." Luther's ominous reply: "Play dirty."
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Of course, the biggest twist lurking in the trailer happens at the very end. Blink and you'll miss it. Did you see her? It's a bloodied Alice Morgan (played by Ruth Wilson), Luther's bright but lethal foil. Presumed dead in season 4, the glimpse suggests she will return for another dangerous dance with our troubled detective.
Just how the pieces will fall is unknown—but we'll be there when it happens.
Luther Season 5 is slated to premiere on the BBC and BBC America in 2019. Exact date has yet to be announced.
