Detective Chief Inspector John Luther is many things — unorthodox, grizzled, well-dressed. But one thing he isn’t is easily dissuaded. The finale of the BBC drama may have landed Idris Elba’s brusque copper behind bars, but nothing is going to stop DCI Luther from doing his job. Especially when there’s a killer on the loose. You can check out the full trailer for Luther: The Fallen Sun below.

Luther: The Fallen Sun TrailerFear. No. Evil. Idris Elba returns as detective John Luther.

“This old case that he did work on that didn’t really ever get solved or put to bed creeps back into his life,” Elba told Netflix. “And John just can’t help but find a way to get involved.” 

Luther’s new adversary is David Robey, a millionaire with a taste for sadism. He’s played by Andy Serkis, an actor who’s brought to life a number of fearsome, scarcely imaginable characters, from Gollum in the The Lord of the Rings films to Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. “This is where I fanboy out a little bit,” Elba said. “I love Andy Serkis. I think he’s just mind-blowing as a talent.”

Serkis returns the compliment. “I was a huge, huge fan of the show. I’ve always been a big fan of Idris’s work,” he tells Tudum. “He’s such a phenomenally instinctive and brilliant actor and especially in this role, he’s extraordinary.” 

The two acting titans may have only nice things to say about each other, but things aren’t quite as cordial between them on-screen. “He really has an inbuilt hatred of hypocrisy,” Serkis says of his character’s twisted moral compass. “He tends to see Luther as someone in a position of power in the police force, yet [also] able to act individually, as a vigilante almost. He wants to bring him down.” As Robey, Serkis is a whirling dervish of menace — a larger-than-life, theatrical criminal to match Elba’s rebellious, nigh-unstoppable cop. 

Before facing off here, Serkis and Elba had never worked together, but their paths have crossed. Elba provided the voice of Shere Khan in Disney’s Jungle Book remake; Serkis directed his own reinterpretation of the Rudyard Kipling story, 2018’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. The coincidence made for an unlikely chance encounter. “When we were shooting ours, he came to [the studio] one day and walked right into our motion-capture studio,” Serkis laughs. “I said, ‘Mate, you walked into the wrong jungle.’”

In Luther, Elba and Serkis face off in a far different jungle — the concrete canyons of London. And Robey proves more than a match for Luther and his new companion DCI Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo). “This is getting on for one of the darkest characters I’ve ever played,” Serkis says. “This is much more sinister because it’s more real in a way.”

It’s also a high-profile performance for an actor often hidden behind layers of digital effects. In recent years, Serkis’ real face has become a more familiar one, with roles in projects such as The Batman and Andor spotlighting his skills outside the realm of performance capture. But for Serkis, there’s no distinction between the two mediums. “For me, the process is exactly the same,” he says. “It’s entirely about building a character from the inside out and working on who this person is and how they then are reflected physically.”

Robey’s internal life is certainly reflected in Serkis’ outward appearance: As seen in the trailer, Luther’s new nemesis rocks a swept-back blond pompadour that draws attention in the same way his blackmail does. And no, it’s not a wig. “It is actually all my hair,” Serkis says proudly. “I went to great pains to have it dyed and straightened and all sorts of things. And then the funny thing was that, I think about the third day that I’d been working with Cynthia, she came up to me and she went, ‘Wow, that’s a great wig.’ And I’m like, this is my real hair! I’ve sweated for this hair.” Even for a chameleon like Serkis, transformation takes work.

Luther: The Fallen Sun hits select theaters on Feb. 24 and Netflix on March 10.