Luther: Super-Sized Special Snags Holiday Premiere Date

BBC America is extending an early Christmas gift to Luther fans.

The network has scheduled its anticipated one-off special — starring Idris Elba as the titular detective — for Thursday, Dec. 17 at 9/8c.

Written and created by Neil Cross and directed by Sam Miller (No Good Deed), the Luther movie — which will run nearly three hours — finds Elba’s antihero pulled “out of seclusion” by a case involving “a cannibalistic serial killer.” (There was speculation that this quasi-fourth season would run as a miniseries, but BBC America opted to go the super-sized “episode” route, thus creating a “one night event.”)

The cast also includes Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey), Laura Haddock (Guardians of the Galaxy), Darren Boyd (Fortitude, Spy), John Heffernan (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and Patrick Malahide (Game of Thrones), with Michael Smiley and Dermot Crowley returning as Benny Silver and DSU Martin Schenk respectively.