It’s been over a year since we first heard tell of a Luther Season 5, and almost two years since Luther Season 4 aired as a TV movie. But it has been a whopping four years since we had a proper season of Luther, as its star Idris Elba has been pretty busy as a major box office draw. But thankfully for fans, Elba is once again donning that iconic gray coat and returning to the small screen in a full season of the thrilling crime show, one that is entering into a very different TV arena than last time.

The new season will be a co-production between BBC Studios and BBC America, and will consist of four episodes (rather than Season 4’s truncated two). Showrunner Neil Cross will again be at the helm, and Ruth Wilson will be returning as Alice — whose supposed death fueled Luther’s misery through Season 4.

Wilson told us recently that in regards to her character and her return,

When I read the script, I thought, “I’ve never read anything like this.” She read like a female Hannibal Lecter, and I thought that I could have so much fun with it, but it was one of those jobs that I didn’t take straight away. I thought, “I just don’t know,” but then, it came back to me. It was one of those ones that didn’t find someone, so it came back to me and I got a second chance to say yes to it, and I did. I’d been thinking about it, ever since I said no to it. I kept thinking that it would be really fun to do, and that I’d wished I’d said yes to it. So, when it came back, I thought, “Okay, this is fate. I’ve got to do it.” But I never, in a million years, would have expected it to have the effect that it did. None of us did. I think it’s a combination of me and Idris because the chemistry between us is really good.

That character is just so unique and interesting, and (show creator) Neil [Cross] really loved writing her, and we had fun with her. You don’t see a psychopath that’s a women, who really enjoys what they’re doing, very often. You’ve got endless male characters like that. For me, it was really freeing. Usually, I play characters that are burdened by morality, and burdened by right and wrong, and are struggling. This character wasn’t that, and it was really freeing. I don’t think I quite understood that when I took it on. It’s only as we’ve done season after season that you realize actually that she’s quite a rare beast, and it’s joyful. I do enjoy playing her. She’s a lot of fun. I love going back to her. I think the audience likes it when people are having fun playing. I think they get a sense of that, on the screen.

In the following first footage from Season 5, we see Luther in a typically brutal situation with a gangster named George Cornelius (which is really just a perfect gangster name), who is trying to find out what happened to his son Alastair. He does so, of course, by electrocuting Luther and then playing a little game of Russian roulette. But Cornelius and his thugs are no match for our complicated hero-detective, who soon gains the upper hand and also reveals a tantalizing mystery — why would Cornelius think Luther is involved in Alastair’s disappearance? Check it out below:

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Here's an early Christmas present from us to you. 😉

Get ready for the brand-new series. Coming soon to @BBCOne. pic.twitter.com/EkinFCBtmO

— BBC One (@BBCOne) November 9, 2018

via Collider