The former FOX drama Lucifer had quite a choppy journey. Loosely based on the Vertigo comics of the same name, Lucifer has recently been renewed by Netflix for a sixth and final season, after having been canceled by FOX shortly after its third season. This move has been the source of celebration for the show's dedicated fanbase, whose ceaseless campaigning arguably helped the show make it this far.
Of course, Lucifer would be nothing without its star Tom Ellis, who has been riding the waves of success as the flamboyant, rebellious, and devilishly handsome Lucifer Morningstar. The supernatural fantasy drama takes audiences on a sensuous ride into a world where the Devil takes a vacation in LA, becomes a nightclub owner, and finds himself falling for an LAPD detective.
Tom Ellis Really Sings
Music is an important part of this supernatural drama, as it shows Lucifer himself playing the piano repeatedly in his nightclub, The Lux, and singing with gusto.
Fans would be enamored to know that the singing is all done by Ellis himself -- the actor does sing his songs, although the piano isn't played by him. He did play the trumpet and the French horn in his younger days, but has stated that the piano was never his forte.
Lucifer Almost Had An American Accent
With every character on the show except for Lucifer himself being American, one might wonder about Ellis' obvious British accent. Did Lucifer just happen to pick up a vessel that spoke with a flawless British accent, or did The Devil always speak like that? As it turns out, The Devil was initially meant to be American just like everyone else.
But while reading for the role, Ellis, who is Welsh, realized that the character was coming off as rude, arrogant, and idiotic when he spoke with an American accent. Somehow, the British accent imbued Lucifer's characteristic bratty behavior with charm and made him come across as incredibly smug yet charismatic.
The First Two Seasons Were Shot In Vancouver
Like its other dark fantasy counterpart Supernatural, the first two seasons of Lucifer were shot in their entirety in Vancouver, Canada. This was done even if the show is supposed to be based in LA and despite the fact that the pilot had actually been shot in the City of Angels.
However, from the third season onwards, production shifted to Los Angeles and the series has since been filmed on location in California, with large parts of it filmed in the Warner Brothers studio.
Lucifer Had Low Ratings On FOX
Despite the strong cult interest that the show garnered, Lucifer saw low viewer ratings throughout its run on FOX. This became one of the incentives for the network to cancel Lucifer after season three.
The series was then picked up by Netflix from the fourth season onwards and then renewed for what was supposed to be the fifth and final season. But in 2020, it was announced that Lucifer had been picked up for another season, which has been confirmed to be its last hurrah
#SaveLucifer & #PickUpLucifer Worked
When FOX decided to cancel the show, fans cooked up a Twitter storm by starting the campaign #SaveLucifer to bring it back. The #SaveLucifer campaign was soon coupled with another watchword: #PickUpLucifer.
The uproar on social media paid off when Netflix finally revived the beloved fantasy drama for another season. It's no wonder the series has had such an uneven run of episodes, with seasons once having 10 episodes before getting the episode count bumped up to 26.
#SaveLucifer Was Immortalized By An Episode's Title
As a tribute to the campaign that saved the day for the Devil, the writers named the penultimate episode of Season 4 "Save Lucifer." The episode marked what could very well have been the penultimate episode of the series itself at the time, since Season 5 was initially meant to wrap things up.
Netflix's original content VP Cindy Holland has stated that the streaming service wanted to give the series a chance to continue and end properly, seeing how well it had resonated with its passionate audience.
There Were Religious Petitions To Cancel The Series
For all the campaigns to save Lucifer, there were also many that were launched to get it off the air. Many websites submitted signed petitions to get the series canceled on the grounds that it promoted evil beliefs and mocked Biblical teachings.
The One Million Moms website of the American Family Association submitted a petition where parents raised concerns about the ways that the series misrepresented Satan as an anti-hero rather than evil personified and supposedly made a mockery of the Bible. Obviously, these campaigns didn't work.
Lucifer Is Based On His DC Comics Incarnation, Not The Bible
Lucifer Morningstar was originally a supporting character in the DC Vertigo comic book The Sandman written by Neil Gaiman, which later spawned the spin-off Lucifer with the bored Devil -- who did in fact go to Los Angeles to take a break from managing eternal damnation -- as its protagonist.
The TV drama was developed by Neil Gaiman alongside British comic book writer Mike Carey and takes some liberty from the books. In fact, Lucifer is only loosely structured around the comics' basic storyline and themes. One key difference is how a relatively grounded Lucifer hangs out with the LAPD in the show, whereas the comics are more focused on Lucifer's meta-physical journeys through different times, places and dimensions.
Lucifer's Real Face Is CGI
Lucifer's true face has been an integral part of his personal and literal journey among humans. He would use his demonic features as a form of punishment, scarring the most reprehensible of criminals he came across as a civilian consultant with the LAPD for life by showing them his scarred face and red, fiery eyes.
Ellis mentions that the grotesque face and eyes are all achieved through the phenomenal advancements of technology. The actor simply has to wear a bald cap and put tracking dots across his face and the rest is done through motion capture and CGI.
Tom Ellis Does His Own Nude Scenes
Lucifer is sexy if nothing else, and every celestial being from the Goddess to the demon Mazikeen to the Devil himself are extremely strip-happy, much to the pleasure of fans. Ellis has had several nude scenes in the show, although it's really only the suggestion of nudity to keep the series from cheapening itself and angering the ratings boards.
While it's commonplace for actors to get a nude body double for their more risque scenes, Ellis forewent this and did his own nude scenes, sending fans into a wild frenzy. To be honest, they can hardly be blamed since Ellis really does pull it off!