Lucifer showrunner Joe Henderson addresses the chances of potential spinoffs following the conclusion of the FOX/Netflix drama. Coming to an end in 2021, Lucifer starred Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar, one of Neil Gaiman's popular characters created for DC Comics. While the show's take on Lucifer was loosely based on Gaiman's creation, the FOX drama served as a procedural with the title character having left Hell and moved to Los Angeles, where he serves as a police consultant. After getting its start on FOX, Lucifer was canceled after three seasons. However, thanks to Netflix, the DC drama got saved for season 4, which was partially driven by the #SaveLucifer social media campaign.
Initially, Lucifer was going to end with season 5, however, in a surprise move, Netflix and Warner Bros. TV made an arrangement to give Lucifer a season 6 renewal, which became the show's official final year. In all, Netflix's intervention was able to double the number of seasons the show would have had after its cancelation on FOX. Throughout the last three seasons, the show got deeper into the universe's lore, which included God himself eventually showing up in Lucifer season 5, portrayed by Dennis Haysbert.
It's been roughly a year since Lucifer came to a conclusion, but it appears that the creators aren't ruling out potential spinoffs. In a new interview with TVLine, co-showrunner Joe Henderson was asked if the producers would ever consider fleshing out the Lucifer universe with offshoot projects. According to Henderson, there have been discussions about trying to continue the DC/Vertigo-based franchise. However, the writers prioritized doing as many stories as they could with the characters on Lucifer rather than saving them for future projects. See what he said below:
"There are always talks about spinoffs…. I mean, honestly, especially early on, yes — and then one of the big things we focused on making sure we told as much story with all of our characters, knowing this was our one shot, as possible, and then finishing the season and then discussing any spinoffs after. Especially once we made Maze a bounty hunter, all that stuff, we fantasy-created that show in our heads. There was a bunch of times, especially Seasons 2, 3 and 4, when we saw all of the potential of these characters. Then we sort of refocused on, “How do we make sure that we tell every story we can with them with the time we have?” And then if we are ever lucky to have future spinoffs, we will have to be clever enough to find a new story."
Even though Lucifer had a large cast of characters, it's hard to see what spinoffs would be doable at this point, given how season 6 ended for most of them. One potential offshoot that would feel most organic is a spinoff featuring D. B. Woodside's Amenadiel, who became the new God in Lucifer's final season. An Amenadiel spinoff could go into detail about how things are going for Lucifer's brother as God, with the Devil now back in Hell, which would help the series stand out from Lucifer's premise.
As rich as the Lucifer universe is, only time will tell if the franchise will ever come back at this point. Many of the actors have moved on to new projects that are keeping them occupied, which could make any Lucifer offshoot series a bit more challenging to launch. In addition to actor availability, it's also worth remembering that the Warner Bros. Discovery merger is still having after-effects on all properties, which would also include Lucifer. However, anything is possible and perhaps in a few years, if everything comes together, the idea of a Lucifer spinoff could become a reality.
Source: TVLine