Idris Elba reprises his role as John Luther in the upcoming Netflix film Luther: The Fallen Sun, and it may be his worst case yet. The new film begins with Luther imprisoned for his crimes during the final series of the BBC drama.
However, it isn’t long until he chooses to escape in order to apprehend David Robey (Andy Serkis), a heinous serial killer terrorizing London.
It all culminates in a suspenseful finale that takes place outside of London (unusual for Luther, we know) with an open-ended denouement that sets up a potential sequel and may leave you wondering what it all means.
So, to explain everything, let’s look at Luther: The Fallen Sun’s finale. If you haven’t seen the film yet, there will be major spoilers ahead.
Luther’s conclusion is explained
Luther: The Fallen Sun reveals, in a Blofeld-esque twist, that Robey was primarily responsible for Luther being imprisoned in the first place. Luther was on the verge of locating a minor abducted by Robey, so he leaked a dossier detailing Luther’s misdeeds to the media.
Unable to stop himself, Robey mocked Luther while he was in jail, which was a poor mistake in retrospect. Luther hunts Robey down to his icy fortress near Norway after a close miss in Piccadilly Circus.
Luther arrives with his replacement, DCI Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo), who is on the hunt for her kidnapped daughter. Robey felt he might use her daughter to persuade Raine to kill Luther, but they ended up working together instead.
For a time, Robey had the upper hand, forcing them to participate in his bizarre Red Room (basically, an online site where people can watch people get tortured). Luther refuses to play ball and eventually chases Robey out onto the ice, where they fight in the water and Robey drowns.
While this is going on, Raine manages to save her kid in the Red Room, while Luther uses Robey’s phone under the ice to unlock the door and the two of them escape.
Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley), who had been assisting in the search for Luther, arrives just in time to save Luther from the same fate as Robey under the ice, and everything appears to have a happy ending. Luther has been severely battered and stabbed by Raine (as part of Robey’s Red Room game), but he is alright.
Of then, there’s the question of Luther escaping from prison in order to capture/kill Robey. No matter how many serial killers are apprehended, Luther must pay for a prison break – or does he?
In the end of Luther, who is the Chief?
Luther is airlifted back to London after being detained to be treated for his injuries. He awakens an unspecified amount of time later in a government safe house, where he is greeted by Schenk.
The reunion occurs just as a convoy of mystery cars arrives, and even Schenk has no idea who they are. “I don’t think you’re going back to prison,” he informs Luther, before speculating that they might be there for a “job offer”.
Luther encounters civil servant Tim Cranfield (Guy Williams), who congratulates him on his work in preventing Robey. Cranfield then says to Luther, “Chief would want a chat,” and motions for Luther to get into one of the cars.
That’s all we’ve got for now. Luther appears to be on board, but who will he encounter? It’s reasonable to assume that now that Luther is no longer a cop, he’ll be working as a covert agent or spy.
Idris Elba has talked about making Luther into an ongoing film series like James Bond, so what better way to start than by giving him a license to kill? Luther already does what he wants while chasing down serial killers (and he’s quite excellent at it), so making it official makes logical.
It’s possible that Luther died while the public was looking for Robey. As we see on TV before Luther wakes up at the safe house, he was “thought to have incurred life-threatening injuries,” thus faking his death could be a simple step.
We’ll probably find out what the position is if we get a Luther sequel or if he simply declines it. But, because the series will have to deal with the reality that he is no longer a police officer, the secret agent/spy approach makes plausible.
Luther should be fine as long as he gets to wear his trench coat.