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When Tom Ellis was hashing out the nuances of Lucifer Morningstar, he originally made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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