It's been quite a wait since the last true season of Luther (and it's still been two years since the two-hour "Season 4" special that aired), but the first trailer for Luther Season 5 released by the BBC is a reminder of why this is a better-late-than-never scenario. Idris Elba has always been electrifying as the titular detective, finding ways to make Luther's "unorthodox cop" feel like more than a crime trope. Though the series' storylines haven't always lived up to its great first season, it's always a ride work taking for fans of murder mysteries.

We don't know much about the upcoming fifth season except that DCI Luther is back in action, with a new partner, Detective Sgt. Catherine Halliday (Wunmi Mosaku), and going up against a killer who looks particularly Red Dragon-y. The victims look like single white females (as always), and the methods by which they are killed seem particularly grisly. But that's not why we watch and love Luther, it's because he never behaves (as is "noted" in the trailer), and because of his strange and fantastic relationship with Alice (Ruth Wilson), who will be back this year. As the trailer's final lines sum up: “I always thought she’d be the end of you … I think she’ll be the end of us all." (Plus, what a great and unexpected cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic").

Check out the new trailer below:

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.

We also saw in recent Season 5 footage that 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? We'll hopefully know soon, although there is not a premiere date yet for the new season.

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Image via BBC
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Image via BBC