By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Editor
Posted: Jan 21, 2022 / 8:09 a.m.
LUCIFER – Season 5 Key Art | © 2020 Netflix
LUCIFER ended its six-season run — the first three on Fox, the last three on Netflix, where all seasons are now available — on September 10, 2021. This multi-part interview with LUCIFER co-executive producer/writer Mike Costa is extremely spoilery, but now we hope readers have had time to catch up on the series climax.
MISSION X last spoke with Costa in the middle of LUCIFER Season 5. The series, developed for television by Tom Kapinos, based on the DC Comics by Mike Dringenberg and Sam Kieth, based on the character created by Neil Gaiman for Vertigo (you have all that?), was under the responsibility of producers executives/show runners Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich for most of its existence.
In LUCIFER, the main character (Tom Ellis) leaves hell, opens a nightclub in Los Angeles and becomes fascinated by LAPD detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German). Lucifer forges his way as an LAPD consultant and becomes good at his job, despite his astonishing self-centeredness. He and Chloe also fall in love, though there are speed bumps when she discovers that a) he’s not metaphorical when he talks about being the devil, and b) she was created by God (Dennis Haysbert) to to be Lucifer’s soul mate.
Aimee Garcia, Kevin Alejandro, Lauren German, Tom Ellis, Tricia Helfer, Lesley-Ann Brandt, DB Woodside and Rachael Harris in LUCIFER – Season 2 |©2016 Fox/Brendan Meadows
On screen, in the second half of season 5, God, Lucifer’s father, abdicates the celestial throne to support his wife (Tricia Helfer) in his universe of creation (different from ours). This leads to a battle between Lucifer and his harmful twin brother Michael (also Ellis), with Lucifer winning and becoming God. This ends Season 5.
In season 6, Lucifer gradually realizes that he doesn’t want to be God. Instead, he is urged by Rory (Brianna Hildebrand), his and Chloe’s time-traveling daughter, to go back and reform Hell. Lucifer accepts that it is his destiny to rule Hell not as a torturer of damned souls, but as a therapist-like figure who can help souls make peace with their earthly lives so that they may ascend to heaven. Upon Chloe’s natural death, she (returned to her youthful appearance) joins Lucifer as a partner in this venture.
Behind the scenes, the LUCIFER The company was initially told that Season 5 would be the last. They crafted all sixteen episodes accordingly – then, halfway through, were informed by Netflix that they had been picked up for a sixth (but this time definitely final) season.
This first part of our exclusive phone interview with Costa concerns the end of the series. Was it originally intended for Lucifer to become God, like he did at the climax of Season 5, or was it always going to end with him becoming a therapist in Hell?
Tom Ellis as Lucifer and Lauren German as Chloe Decker in LUCIFER – Season 5 – “Lucifer!” Lucifer! Lucifer!” |©2020 Netflix/John P. Fleenor
“Yes,” Costa acknowledges. “When we thought season 5 was our last season, which we thought was ninety percent of the production of season 5, until we literally wrote the final episode,” he laughs. , “and then we found out that they wanted to do a season 6. The ending that you see in season 6 was basically the ending that we had indeed planned for season 5. Where all the characters end up is exactly what we had planned when we were going to end in season 5.
“So when we found out that Season 5 wouldn’t be the last season, we took a few days to really figure out, ‘Okay, what are we going to do?’ There were a lot of different things on the table. One of the things we talked about was, ‘Well, why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just end the episode like we had it?’ planned like it’s the series finale and then let’s see if we can find something else to do in season 6 maybe there’s more to do with these characters even if we’re going do what we did, we’ll “end” in quotes, maybe we can figure something out. That was an idea.
LUCIFER: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON | © 2016 Warner Home Video
One suggestion from the writers room was that Lucifer and Chloe, now working from Hell, essentially become detectives again to try and figure out what the people in Hell needed to stop feeling guilty so they could ascend. “I think it’s a great, organic idea to get out of the concept of Lucifer and Chloe in Hell. It’s definitely something someone suggested. And then another idea was, ‘Should we just throw everything away? that and come up with something brand new that we’re working on?’ We talked about a lot of things.”
Finally, Costa says, “We decided, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to end the last episode of Season 5 as Lucifer becomes God, and we’re just going to cut what would have been the last ten minutes of the episode, showing what happens to various characters, and various characters make decisions. ‘
“Because what was really happening was, Joe and Ildy were writing the script for the last episode of Season 5, which we thought was the series finale. And Ildy in particular, I think, was the person who wrote the last act of the series. It was a show in six acts. So Act 6 was still the end of the storyline, and that was the thing Ildy was tackling. Even though we no longer had commercials on Netflix, we still structured the scripts the same way, because that was the familiar way of doing the show. And she was working on that act.
Costa thinks it was Modrovich who finally said, “’Listen. Some of these characters make such big decisions in what is essentially seven pages of a script, it’s just not enough time,” he laughs. “’I realize that Lucifer becomes God, and then almost immediately he decides that he shouldn’t be God, and that he should go to Hell instead. It’s happening so fast that having another season is very, very helpful. Because we should take more time with him to make this decision. That’s not enough room for a character to make such a dramatic decision. And that was really what decided how we were going to do the end of Season 5.”
LUCIFER – Season 4 Key Art | ©2019 Netflix
After that, Costa continues, “The rest of Season 6 was basically, like I said, we were going to take where all the characters were going to end up anyway, and just stretch that out over one season. So, yes, it was going to end – season 5, as the final season, was going to end with Lucifer becoming a therapist. In fact, more specifically, it was going to end at exactly the same time Chloe arrived, Lucifer saying hello, ushering her in, and closing the door. It was the end of the show from when we first “knew” season 5 was the final season, which of course wasn’t the case, but when we started the season 5, knowing that was the last season, one of the things we did at the beginning of this year was to talk, ‘Okay, what’s the last thing that’s happening on the show?’ We came to this idea pretty quickly, and it never changed.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2
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Item: LUCIFER: Exclusive interview with writer and co-executive producer Mike Costa on the end of the popular DC Comics adaptation – Part 1
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