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"Luther is back - but is it for the last time? As the dark cop drama&amp;#039;s third series opens, maverick detective John Luther is on the hunt for a sinister serial killer, unaware that he himself is being pursued by a relentless ex-cop determined to take our hero down... Digital Spy and other journalists spoke to Idris Elba - the man who brings Luther to life - about the four new hour-long episodes, plans for a movie spinoff and why series three could be the last we see of DCI Luther on television.  Are you aware of the massive anticipation for this new series of Luther? &amp;quot;A lot of it lives online, honestly, the sort of intense\u2026 &amp;#039;When&amp;#039;s it coming back?&amp;#039; - a lot of it&amp;#039;s from Twitter or Facebook or whatnot. But there is definitely a feeling of people wanting to understand why it&amp;#039;s taken so long - it&amp;#039;s quite an unusual schedule that we keep, so it does raise a lot of questions.&amp;quot; Is the long wait down to your busy schedule? &amp;quot;No, not exactly - it takes time to put Luther on the map and then I&amp;#039;ve just had other projects that&amp;#039;ve been a priority for me. But the BBC have slightly different priorities, so we just haven&amp;#039;t had the chance to put two schedules together until now. But we&amp;#039;ve made it happen!&amp;quot;  Did you ever expect Luther to become such a phenomenon? &amp;quot;No, not at all. To be honest, I was concerned - it was a massive risk. Even though I was popular from an American show [HBO&amp;#039;s The Wire], British audiences hadn&amp;#039;t seen me on TV for at least 10 years, so it was a bit of a risk placing me as the lead of the show. &amp;quot;I was definitely surprised at how popular it became. It continues to be popular, especially with worldwide audiences - they&amp;#039;re starting to embrace the show in different countries, especially America.&amp;quot; Why do you think it&amp;#039;s become a hit in the US? &amp;quot;I think the audacity of the show is what really appeals to Americans, and seeing it come from the English, who typically do more tailored TV. Luther plays like an American show but with English characters, and I think that&amp;#039;s part of its appeal there. They&amp;#039;re not seeing stiff upper lip TV, they&amp;#039;re seeing this ballsy f**king 6-foot tall black guy kick some arse!&amp;quot;  Alice (Ruth Wilson) is back this series - why do you think she and Luther share such a strong bond? &amp;quot;I think the bond lies within their intellect. There&amp;#039;s a certain chemistry between them that I think they enjoy exploring - he&amp;#039;s on the right side of the law, he&amp;#039;s a smart man, she&amp;#039;s on the wrong side of the law and she&amp;#039;s super-smart, and they just have a common ground which no-one else can step in. It&amp;#039;s their own little space and I think [series creator] Neil Cross has enjoyed exploring that weird world of two people who shouldn&amp;#039;t really be in love, but are.&amp;quot; There&amp;#039;s been talk of an Alice spinoff - would you like to be involved? &amp;quot;If there was an Alice spinoff, I don&amp;#039;t think it would be centred around Luther&amp;#039;s world. I think it&amp;#039;d be Alice on her own, doing her own thing - maybe Luther would step in, but I don&amp;#039;t see it working like that.&amp;quot;  Do you think having just four episodes per series works to the show&amp;#039;s benefit? &amp;quot;Absolutely. I think it works for building an audience - give them too much and they get bored of it. It&amp;#039;s like a series of books - there&amp;#039;s four more books to read. You don&amp;#039;t want 13 books to read - you want four and you want them to be good and fulfil everything you&amp;#039;ve asked for, and then wait for the next ones! &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s worked for us. Our show is very dark and it&amp;#039;s quite a difficult show to make. Some of the American shows have done really well [with longer seasons] like Dexter and Breaking Bad - but interestingly enough, I don&amp;#039;t think they fit in as much as we do per episode.&amp;quot; What ultimately lured you back to Luther for this new series? &amp;quot;I wanted to make sure the character lived its arc, at least for the television. It&amp;#039;s no secret that I&amp;#039;ve been trying to make a film version of this, but for television, it was important to finish its arc properly\u2026 or at least give it a story that ends in an interesting way. &amp;quot;Although, we do what we do on Luther which is leave you cliff-hanging at the end, but you definitely get a sense of closure.&amp;quot;  So is this definitely the end of Luther as a television series? &amp;quot;If I&amp;#039;m honest, I think, yeah, it might be. There is the option of specials - one-offs - but I&amp;#039;m not sure whether we&amp;#039;re actually going to do that. That&amp;#039;s the plan. But as far as another series is concerned, I don&amp;#039;t think we&amp;#039;re going to do any more.&amp;quot; Why not? &amp;quot;I think the film would be a bit more interesting to make, to be honest. We think we are a film when we&amp;#039;re making our show, so I think we should go all the way.&amp;quot;  Would you consider doing any sort of television again or do you want to focus on film work now? &amp;quot;Television is where I&amp;#039;ve lived and learned and grown and I&amp;#039;ll never stop doing it. Although there are some amazing film opportunities coming my way, I always see myself doing television as well. I think I will eventually become a producer/director in television, but it&amp;#039;s a medium that I&amp;#039;m really close to.&amp;quot; What stage is the planned Luther movie at? &amp;quot;Neil has an idea of what the film is about and it&amp;#039;s based on the book [2011&amp;#039;s Luther: The Calling] so we&amp;#039;re fleshing that out now and figuring out who our candidate for a director and a producer would be. We&amp;#039;re developing\u2026 but the film itself hasn&amp;#039;t been green-lit.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;The idea of the old-school thriller genre in a film that&amp;#039;s British is exciting to me. It&amp;#039;s not been done for a while, or not been done well, and I think if anyone can do it well, it&amp;#039;s Neil Cross. Imagine what kind of film we could make!&amp;quot; The new series of Luther begins on Tuesday, July 2 at 9pm on BBC One. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/luther/interviews/a491552/idris-elba-luther-qa-i-think-this-is-the-final-series/>