‘Lucifer’: Original Ending Revealed

Lucifer Season 6 is nearly here, but it almost didn’t exist. Netflix planned to wrap the show after Season 5, meaning the latest episodes fans saw were supposed to the final chapter in Lucifer Morningstar’s (Tom Ellis) saga. However, Lucifer’s writers retooled some things and saved some key points of Season 5’s original ending for the next season. In a recent interview with TV Line, showrunners Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich explained that the Season 5 ending fans saw was not what they had originally planned. Spoilers for Lucifer Season 5, Part 2 ahead!

In Season 5’s ending, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) becomes God. He wields the flaming sword in front of his siblings and allies, who kneel before him. He nervously says to himself “Oh my me,” noting his new position as overseer of the entire universe. While that’s an interesting endpoint in of itself, there was another act that was initially supposed to wrap up the show. This part of the episode presumably showed how the characters were doing after Lucifer ascended to his new position. This part was cut and expanded on for Season 6.

“Surprisingly, [where we left off] was the easiest endpoint, in the middle of such a curveball,” Modrovich said. “When they said, “Let’s have another season,” that was an easy one because the end of Act V of that episode was Lucifer becoming God, and we realized that that was such a great cliffhanger. [In the original series finale] a lot happened in Act VI, obviously, but we just kind of lopped it off. And [Lucifer becoming God] became the end of 5B.”

TV Line’s Matt Webb Mitovich then noted a cast member has said that Season 6 was “an elongated version of a series-ending coda” the showrunners had in place. The pair noted that read of the material was mostly true. However, they noted that the main storyline of Season 6 is something totally new that they initially didn’t have planned.

“I would say that’s true, to a point. It is very much our goodbye season, but as we started to dig into Season 6, we found new story we wouldn’t have told before,” Henderson said. “I don’t want people to think that Season 6 is almost like an elongated Act VI, because it’s not. It’s its own season. It’s got its own engine. There is a story that we didn’t know we would have to tell until we got to the point we got to, and once we got there and looked around, we realized that there was an entire engine for an entire season worth of storytelling that we’re excited about. But it is very much a season of saying goodbye to the show we love.”

Modrovich added, “In fact, the main story of Season 6 was not a part of Season 5 at all.” These comments echo July 2020 remarks D.B. Woodside made to Entertainment Tonight. The 51-year-old actor, who plays Amenadiel on Lucifer, noted that there was a mix of new stories and expanded Season 5 ideas in the final season.

“The ending that they had planned, now they’re just going to stretch it out a little bit, and allow all of our characters some space and room and to breathe and maybe even tell some more stories about each of the characters,” Woodside said. “Our fans are going to get a chance to see us in different ways before we get to the end. So, I think the sixth season is really for the fans.”

All past episodes of Lucifer — including those that aired on its original network, FOX — are streaming on Netflix. Season 6 releases on Sept. 10. The show itself is based on the DC Comics character Lucifer Morningstar, who was created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg.