Summary
- Tom Ellis would consider reprising his role as Lucifer, but only if it were for a movie and if the script and circumstances were right.
- He values leaving the audience wanting more, unlike the commercial-driven industry in the US.
- With Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and a different take on Lucifer, it seems unlikely that Ellis will return to his role, but never say never in the world of streaming.
Tom Ellis would consider reviving his popular role as the devilish Lucifer, but only in very specific circumstances.
Ellis’ run as the charming protagonist of the series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman was given a second lease of life after its initial cancelation, with Netflix coming to the rescue and delivering three additional seasons, bringing the tally to six. While this allowed the series to be brought to a full conclusion, there were just enough threads left hanging that a movie follow-up has frequently been discussed since the show concluded in September 2021.
During an appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Ellis addressed the possibility of bringing Lucifer back one more time, and how he would only do it for the right reasons. He said:
“I certainly feel like on the TV front, like I’ve said before, we covered all bases. I think that the only thing that would make me go back would be if it were a movie. And it would have to be good. It’s not just doing it for the sake of doing it. It would have to be, you know, we’d have to sign off on like, what the script was, and all those things. Because I feel like one of the weird things certainly about working over here is there’s so much like, when you’re somebody successful, people just want more and more and more and more and more. Whereas, where I’m from, you know, leave them wanting more is the motto. And it was never such a sort of financially commercially based industry back in the UK.
Miranda, for example, we only ever did 20 episodes in total. And it’s still iconic, and it still has an afterlife that people revisit. But the reason we only did that many is because Miranda didn’t want to do anymore. And she didn’t want to write anymore because it took so much. But she wrote all the episodes of it. And she felt like she’d done it. And, you know, to beat it around the head and dilute it as a product just for the sake of making more and more and more and more. She didn’t want to do that, and I had so much respect for her for making that decision because the BBC were desperate for it.”
Lucifer Has a New Face in Netflix’s Sandman Adaptation
Tom Ellis’s take on Lucifer was certainly popular, and the fact that there is still talk of a revival four years after the series reached its conclusion is testament to that fact. However, since the ending of the series, Netflix have bought into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, which includes a different take on the character of Lucifer Morningstar.
Fans of Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels have waited many years to see an adaptation come to fruition, and it finally happened in August 2022. Although the series seemed to be a huge hit, Netflix took quite a while to finally announced that the series would be returning for a second season, and will see Gwendoline Christie reprise her role as Lucifer.
As the ruler of Hell, Christie’s gender-swapped interpretation of Lucifer was just one of the high points of the series, but is there enough room on Netflix for two Lucifers? For now, it still seems unlikely that Ellis will return to his role again, but in the world of streaming, never say never is always an option.
Lucifer
- Release Date
- January 25, 2015
- Seasons
- 6
- Studio
- Fox/Netflix
