It’s been over two years since Lucifer came to an end after multiple revivals, and at one point, it didn’t even seem like the show was going to come back at all. Before Netflix gave the fantasy procedural dramedy three additional seasons and a bittersweet ending, Fox gave it the ole’ heave-ho. Apparently, that all came at a pretty awkward time, according to Lucifer Morningstar himself, Tom Ellis, who recently looked back at his show and its two homes.
Lucifer made its debut on Fox in 2016, and it gradually grew into a hit. By the third season in 2018, it didn’t seem like there was any chance it would end until Fox canceled it. While appearing as a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, Ellis admitted how it felt getting the news, which came during a weekend he was celebrating the show with a bunch of fans:
Oh, honestly, I was gutted. I was at a fan convention in Rome, having the time of my life. I’d spent the whole weekend with people just confessing their love for the show and talking about the show, and blah blah blah. I was thousands of miles from where we filmed this thing, thinking, ‘My goodness, isn’t it strange that we’ve got this fanbase that’s growing and growing and growing and growing?’ And then, literally, I was in the minibus on the way back from the convention to the hotel we were staying at, and I got a call from our showrunner saying Fox had just canceled the show. I was crushed. I was thrown. I didn’t expect it to happen, and yeah, I was pretty devastated. [Laughs.]
It’s definitely disappointing to get that kind of news after being at a fan convention and hearing so many fans share their love for the show. While Ellis had just wrapped up his final day at the convention so he didn’t have to break the sad news to fans, he mentioned how they kept asking for news on Season 4. At the time, he was hopeful that the good news was going to come soon:
The whole weekend had been about people going, ‘When are we gonna hear about Season 4? When are we gonna hear about Season 4?’ I was like, ‘Very soon, don’t worry.’ Then I got the call, and it was like, ‘Oh my God.’
By the time Tom Ellis got back to London a couple of days later, Fox still hadn’t officially announced that Lucifer was done. Unfortunately, it only got worse from there, as the Players actor admitted that he was tipped off by someone that the network was going to bury the cancellation announcement by announcing something else at the same time the following weekend.
Wanting to let the dedicated Lucifans know, Ellis took it upon himself to announce the news on Twitter, making sure it was before Fox had the chance to break the news. When Rosenbaum asked if Fox was pissed, Ellis had just one simple response:
I don’t fucking care. To be honest with you, at the time, I pressed send on that tweet, and I had a panic attack. [Laughs.] Cause I thought, ‘Oh my God, I just ruined everything’ and blah blah blah.
Even though Fox definitely could have handled the cancellation better, at least fans and the cast and crew didn’t have to wait too long for good news. Netflix picked up Lucifer just a month later. This time, they actually listened to the fans, as it was originally supposed to end after Season 5, but Netflix renewed it for a sixth and final season, properly giving Lucifer an end. Fan campaigns don’t always work, but the ones that do are incredible.
The show may have seen its fair share of protestors and complaining moms, but Tom Ellis saw firsthand how much fans love Lucifer. It was all because of them that the show got saved. It may have switched networks during its run, but the transition to Netflix proved to be a successful one, and it got Lucifer an extra three seasons.
Fans were willing to sign up for a Netflix subscription to watch their favorite devil and detective duo, and I don’t blame them. And now, all these years later, it’s emotional to hear the show’s star talk about this terrible moment when the show got canceled, and how the fans helped save it.