Life on Mars Sequel Lazarus Teased By Original BBC Stars

Life on Mars star John Simm shared an Instagram post teasing that the third and final series of the franchise is still making progress. Life on Mars, which followed a man being sent back to 1973 after being hit by a car, originally aired on the BBC in 2006. This was followed by another series titled Ashes to Ashes in 2008, about a new character being sent to 1981 while investigating the events of the first series. Development on a third series, titled Lazarus, was announced in 2020, though not much had been heard from the team following that announcement.

John Simm, who also played Saxon on Doctor Who, starred in Life on Mars as the lead character Detective Inspector Sam Tyler. His presence in 1973 remained the central mystery, as it was unclear whether he had actually time traveled, was hallucinating the events of the series while in a coma, or was in some sort of purgatory or afterlife situation. However, while he was in 1973 he did his best to reform the brutal approach of the police at the time and made his share of friends and enemies along the way.

On Instagram, John Simm shared an image of himself and Philip Glenister, who played Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt, with whom his character frequently failed to get along. He shared the photo along with the caption “Spent a lovely afternoon with the husband, chatting about life on different planets… #watchthisspace #lazarus.” Although Glenister appeared in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, Simm only appeared in the original series, so this development shows that Lazarus will most likely feature some sort of new narrative wrinkle bringing the two back together. Check out Simm’s post below:

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Although only a few seasons of the show have aired, in typical BBC fashion, the truncated run doesn’t mean the show wasn’t a success. The series was adapted in America, Russia, Spain, the Czech Republic, South Korea, with an upcoming version announced in China in 2019. Life on Mars also had a series of tie-in books, including 2 companion books and 4 novels.

Canonically, John Simm’s Life on Marscharacter is now dead in the present day, having crashed his car during a pursuit in 1980. It is currently unknown whether the events of Lazarus will use more time travel mechanics to bring him back to life, or if a new character will travel back in time to a pre-1980 period. Development is still obviously in the very early days, but now that it’s certain that meetings are happening, hopefully fans will be able to hear more soon.

Source: John Simm

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