‘Luther’ Creator Changed a Victim’s Gender in ‘Fallen Sun’ at Netflix’s Request

“Luther” sequel film “The Fallen Sun” opens like many of the episodes from the Idris Elba detective drama: with someone getting murdered. In the film’s case, the victim is Callum Aldrich (James Bamford), who is kidnapped and killed by wealthy serial killer David Robey (Andy Serkis). But in the film’s first draft, Callum was a woman before creator Neil Cross made a rewrite — at the request of Netflix.

Cross revealed the change in a recent interview with The Independent. The writer, who created the original series and penned every episode in addition to “Fallen Sun’s” screenplay, said that the first victim was female in the original script in part because he believes violence against women is more “frightening” for viewers.

“For reasons I fear to interrogate too deeply, the female victims resonate and scare more deeply,” Cross told The Independent. “So, there was a defiant part of me in the first draft of this, which was, ‘Oh fuck it – the victim is going to be a woman because that’s more frightening.’”

According to Cross, Netflix encouraged him to change the gender of the victim in the one major note the streamer gave him on his script. Although he was initially hesitant, he said in hindsight it was the correct decision.

“That’s the one moment where Netflix said, ‘Do you want to think about this a bit?’” Cross said. “And I did say, ‘Well, it’ll be less scary.’ I worried that it might be. But actually, they were right.”

Cross further explained that the original series received extensive criticism over its run for its portrayal of violence against women. Although he said it was understandable people were uncomfortable, he defended the show by claiming their are more male victims on the show as opposed to men.

“It’s been mentioned before that people are uncomfortable with the victimization of women in Luther — not unfairly,” he said. “The odd thing, though, is that, if one were to do the maths, there are many, many more male victims in Luther than there are women.”

Cross also spoke about the possibility of series lead Elba becoming the next James Bond, a fan casting that has grown in popularity over the years, despite the “Wire” star stating that the role of Ian Fleming’s secret agent “is not a goal for my career.”

“It’s not a hot take to express the notion that Idris is one of the most charismatic actors currently on the face of the planet,” Cross said. “And I don’t think there is any role that he couldn’t play, so I think he’d make an exceptional Bond. But I prefer Luther.”

“Luther: The Fallen Sun” is currently available to stream on Netflix.