No one would've guessed that Lucifer - a show
about the Devil getting bored, opening a nightclub
in L.A., and helping cops solve murders - would
gain the fanbase it's developed, but it's
a bona fide hit.
From his hellish origins to the truth about
the show, here's what nobody told you about
Lucifer.
It may feel like Lucifer was always meant
to be in front of the camera, but the show
is actually based on a comic book character
from 1989.
The original source material was created by
Neil Gaiman and released by DC comics, with
Lucifer appearing in the influential Sandman
series before graduating to solo comics in
1999.
As you might expect, the comic books are considerably
darker and more philosophical than the series.
It's likely that network writers went down
a different road both to make the character
more relatable and also to fit into budget
restraints.
A truly accurate adaptation of the comics
would've called for a budget that Fox would've
never coughed up.
In the comics, Lucifer's adventures take him
to other dimensions where he interacts with
different beings that are anything but human.
Morningstar's personality is also much different
-- he couldn't care less about the emotional
repercussions of human beings.
In the show, Lucifer may display selfish qualities,
but he makes it apparent that he's putting
effort into being better.
He's on a journey of self-discovery, and he
grapples with the concept of emotions and
struggles to accept love.
Interestingly, when creating the character
for The Sandman, Gaiman based Lucifer's look
on the legendary David Bowie.
Much respect to the source material, but we're
thankful casting took a risk on Ellis, who's
left his own unique mark on the beast.
"Must be something about this face."
When Tom Ellis was hashing out the nuances
of Lucifer Morningstar, he originally made
the obvious choice for an L.A. resident and
gave him an American accent.
A "when in Rome" approach to his dialect seems
sound, but after trial and error with the
written dialogue, Ellis felt that his character
was coming off as more of a jerk than he wanted.
"Are you at all aware of how dickish you sound?"
"No."
The intent, after all, was to have Lucifer
be sarcastic but charming.
So, he decided to go with a British accent
because, as Ellis explained via Twitter:
"[W]ith a British accent in America you can
pretty much say anything and get away with
it."
Ellis certainly made the right choice.
It's hard to imagine the charming devil with
anything but a suave dialect that screams:
"Come on gorgeous, you tell me your most dangerous
desire."
We can't see Lucifer radiating the same vibe
with an American drawl.
Imagine a good ol' California boy staring
deep into someone's eyes and saying, "Hey,
what do you desire, buddy?"
Not exactly the personality fans would gravitate
towards.
In the lead up to its initial 2016 airing,
there was quite a bit of backlash for Lucifer.
The religious community condemned the show
for its depiction of their most notorious
biblical villain, and Christians stated that
the show mischaracterized the Devil and mocked
their beliefs.
There was even a petition started up to cancel
the show by the group One Million Moms that
amassed over 38,000 signatures before the
show aired.
Of course, the network charged ahead anyway.
Even after its move to Netflix, the show has
continued to upset the devout.
Yet another petition started up to cancel
Lucifer again, this time with over 100,000
signatures.
The main beef the religious community seems
to have with the show is its depiction of
Lucifer as a good guy.
They view it as an affront - a statement that
Hollywood is denying the existence of God
while giving his evil counterpart a TV show.
But hey, there's no such thing as bad publicity,
right?
"It's like you have some kind of god complex."
"I most certainly do not."
Lucifer's first season garnered around seven
million viewers, which was enough to send
the series into season two.
The show's success and story arc almost appear
to be an act of defiance against the pushback,
with demons and angels both learning about
what it means to be human.
In Lucifer, celestial entities go against
their very nature to nurture the emotion known
as love, and showing that even the Devil can
change is sending a big message.
Lucifer is known for casually slipping word
play and sexual innuendo into its dialogue,
and it's pretty entertaining to see the ways
that writers sneak jokes past the network
censors.
Lucifer is the devil after all, so he can't
be entirely PG.
The British swagger of Lucifer combines well
with the cheeky jokes we get from time to
time, but the dry humor can distract from
another nuance as well, one that likely would've
gone unnoticed without the show's switch to
a streaming platform.
In each episode, Lucifer actually says the
name of the episode out loud.
It's always fun when creators give us a subtle
reason to dive deeper into the world they've
created, and the knowledge of this little
joke can give each episode viewing an extra
little thrill.
After all, it's fun to keep your ears open
after seeing the episode is titled "Orgy Pants
to Work."
"Oh my!
I've worn my orgy pants to work, haven't I?"
The common thread between the comic and the
show is Lucifer's nightclub.
Even when the writers were making all the
changes for the TV adaptation, it was obvious
that his base of operations was a must.
After all, the guy takes a lot of pride in
his club.
And it turns out that Lucifer dove into his
own lore when settling on a name for his infamous
nightclub.
Lucifer's lair is known to the denizens of
L.A. as Lux.
Every night of the week, the place is packed
with sparkling dresses and sharply dressed
rainmakers.
But it's unlikely that any of them are aware
that their favorite dimly lit haunt is derived
from the Latin word for "light."
This is an especially clever choice given
that the etymology for the name "Lucifer"
is "light-bringer."
Of course, the dark tiles and soft lighting
make it clear that the Prince of Darkness
was being a bit less literal with the name,
but still, he's clearly chasing a feeling.
Lucifer pulls a lot of its story structure
from religious mythology.
We get angels, demons, and ancient beings.
The show makes clever use of these well-known
stories, absorbing them and filtering them
through the show's format.
But given its close ties with the Bible, it's
surprising that across all its seasons, there
hasn't been a single, real mention of its
most recognized character.
Lucifer, his angelic brother Amenadiel, and
all the other characters never once reference
the most famous biblical character - Jesus.
And in the case that a curse word or a shocked
exclamation is called for, none of the main
characters ever use the name of the Son of
God in vain.
"Oh, thank God."
"Please don't."
That seems pretty intentional.
Maybe the show's writers felt that mentioning
his name would call for too much explaining
as to how Lucifer relates to Jesus.
Or given all of his layers, maybe Lucifer
despises him so much that he's completely
pushed the name out of his mind altogether.
Only time will tell.
We won't hold our breath, though.
The Savior is known for keeping us waiting,
after all.
The softer side of Lucifer's personality is
put on display through his soothing piano
songs, as the Father of Lies steps up to the
keys and mellows out the energy in his nightclub
from time to time.
And surprisingly, Ellis isn't just a killer
lip-syncher in those episodes.
"And he's breaking into song."
The voice you're hearing in those songs is
actually Tom Ellis himself, and as the actor
explained to Vulture, it was a complete accident
that he got to show off his pipes on the show,
explaining:
"The cast and crew were having a karaoke night
out in Vancouver, and I got up to belt out
a song.
The producers didn't know I could sing, so
they decided to work it into an episode in
the first season."
However, the dapper hunk didn't play the piano.
Ellis revealed to Hidden Remote that in past
years, he was only responsible for the singing
in those scenes and that he, quote, "never
learned to play the piano."
As the show is moving forward, though, the
actor appears to have expanded his repertoire,
as social media posts have shown him working
out on the keys and flexing his pipes.
It probably comes natural to the man, as Ellis
hails from a talented family with a big musical
background.
His mother was a music teacher, and the actor
grew up playing the trumpet and the French
horn.
Looks like he's working towards adding piano
mastery to that list.
While season one of Lucifer started off with
decent ratings that called for Fox to order
more seasons of the show, things began to
drop off slightly as the series progressed.
The first chunk of episodes averaged over
7 million viewers.
By the end of season three, the average viewership
had dropped to just over 3 million.
Fox saw this as a good enough reason to exorcise
the show from their Monday night lineup.
"Oh, bloody hell."
The crew of Lucifer didn't have to suffer
for too long, though.
Just a month after the announcement, Netflix
made one of their own.
They picked up the rights to the three seasons
of Lucifer, and the streaming service also
announced that they'd be producing a fourth
season.
The minds working at Netflix know what they're
doing.
Not only did they see the show's potential,
but they also helped add to the show's nuance,
as the announcement of season four was made
exactly 666 hours before the show was available
to stream at midnight on May 8, 2019.
How devilishly clever.
Lucifer continued to pick up momentum, and
the show's fanbase has grown vastly since
its departure from Fox.
Maybe the dip in viewers was less about the
show itself and more about the platform.
Then again, Fox is definitely known for cancelling
shows too soon.
At the end of season four, we left our favorite
demon overlord in a heartbreaking situation
-- with Lucifer's departure from the earthly
realm, returning to his seat of power in Hell.
However, we can't have a show based in L.A.
called Lucifer without Lucifer, right?
Show writers agreed.
Lucifer's season five trailer shows the debonair
anti-hero back in his earthly element... but
not quite the same.
"Lucifer 2.0."
Turns out, someone new is impersonating Lucifer,
and once the real deal arrives, we're all
seeing double.
While two versions of Tom Ellis sounds delightful,
it's unfortunately just fiction.
Kind of.
In real life, Ellis actually has a twin sister,
although he doesn't seem to share many details
about her, other than the fact that she exists.
Interestingly, he has a total of three sisters,
with Ellis seeming to be closest with his
sister Naomi, describing her as his, quote,
"biggest fan."
Ironically, a large portion of his family
are also members of the clergy.
In an interview with Fair Game, Ellis revealed
that his father, one of his sisters, and his
uncle are all pastors.
Despite his popular role as evil incarnate,
they apparently all support his career.
Lucifer wasn't always meant to be a consultant
for the LAPD.
The mischievous hellion initially had different
intentions for the City of Angels.
Tom Ellis revealed in an interview on The
Rich Eisen Show that the series was originally
going to be about the Devil living in L.A.
and interacting with seedy characters.
Here, Lucifer would create scenarios where
he could offer deals that he would cash in
for favors later on.
"Right, you're that club owner guy who grants
people favors."
While the show currently hints at aspects
of this, it's merely a remnant of the show's
original intentions.
In fact, the whole concept of Lucifer solving
crimes was a quote, "happy accident," as Ellis
described it.
His character served as an LAPD consultant
in the pilot, and the episode tested incredibly
well.
Naturally, the writers saw more potential
for various storylines, and thus, Lucifer
began cracking cases.
However, it's interesting to think about the
version of the show with Lucifer acting more
like, well, Lucifer.
We would've lost the hint of nobility we get
from his pursuit of justice.
He would've been more devilish but less relatable,
and we also wouldn't have the repetition of
the distinctive, nasally tone that Lucifer
switches to when slyly addressing Chloe.
"Detective!"
In other words, alternate-reality Lucifer
sounds more manipulative and crass, rather
than the one we all love now, who we just
want to hug and tell him everything is going
to be okay.
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