Luther: The Fallen Sun's Piccadilly Circus Scene Was All Thanks To A Fan

The latest excursion of John Luther (Idris Elba) in the well-received Netflix movie "Luther: The Fallen Sun" is certainly a romp through some pretty fantastic set pieces. This makes perfect sense, considering the events of the movie sees Luther jailed for some of his more unlawful previous actions, and he must face off against the sadist and master manipulator David Robey (Andy Serkis). Robey is actually the one responsible for Luther's captivity, and he enjoys mentally torturing the former high-ranking detective.

Acting as a continuation of the "Luther" television series, one of the major scenes in the movie is after Luther escapes from prison, and he locates Robey at Piccadilly Circus, a world-famous location on par with places like New York City's Times Square. Surprisingly, this scene was actually filmed at the real Piccadilly Circus, and that was due in part to a "Luther" fan. Speaking with Collider, Elba was asked what it was like to film a scene in Piccadilly Circus, and he replied, "Yeah, I think Piccadilly Circus is definitely like, 'Wait, what? They said yes?' I mean, you know, it's really difficult to get any sort of filming where you can shut down Piccadilly Circus, but it turns out the person that signs off the filming rights of those areas was a 'Luther' fan. So thanks very much for doing that."

Idris Elba continued, "But definitely, we had our toys, our favorite toys in our sandbox, and being able to do that. The prison sequence, again, we don't usually do fight sequences in 'Luther,' but we wanted to do one that was memorable and one that felt within the sort of brand language, if you like. You know, sort of messy and not really fight sequencey, but just visceral." These two scenes are definitely sprawling moments in "Luther: The Fallen Sun," with the prison fight scene acting as somewhat of a cover for his escape. As Luther makes his way out of the prison, he is attacked by inmates, and he engages in brutal combat in order to escape his confinement and stop David Robey.

Likewise, the Piccadilly Circus scene involves Luther finally catching up to Robey, but Robey has set some of his manipulated victims in place to leap to their deaths at a specific time, causing the famous location to spiral into chaos, death, and viral panic as innocent onlookers become wracked with fear. With Elba's words in mind, it is perfectly clear why he mentioned these two scenes, which must have required a tremendous amount of prep work and permits — at least when it comes to filming in a place like Piccadilly Circus. Luckily, it is always nice when a fan is in a position of power and able to make something like this happen without the use of green screens and CGI.