Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

History’s original bad boy is back.

For those who think the devil is evil incarnate, Fox is introducing pop culture to a different, very un-Biblical version of Satan with Lucifer, premiering Monday (Fox, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Tired of ruling the underworld, fallen angel Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis)takes up residence in Los Angeles as a suave and charming club owner and helps homicide detective Chloe Dancer (Lauren German) catch bad guys.

He’s not a hero, he’s not a villain, and the show aims to play on the preconceived notions of the most infamous fallen angel of God’s heavenly host.

“Is he intrinsically evil or is it just because his dad decided he was in the grand order of things?” Ellis says. “For him to go on and represent evil to humanity for the rest of time is a huge chip he bears on his shoulder.”

Executive producer Joe Henderson compares the show’s Lucifer, based on the character from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic books, to all of us in our teenage years.

“He told Dad, ‘Hey, stop telling me what to do,’ and Dad said, ‘Fine, go to hell,’ where he’s been stuck for a while,” Henderson says. “Now he’s like, ‘You know what? No. I’m gonna go my own path, and if Dad doesn’t like it, too bad.’ ”

Lucifer wants to act on his desires, but he has a way with people that makes them reveal their deepest inner cravings. While he can have his way with most women, Lucifer doesn’t seem to have any control over Chloe, a female cop who also has some baggage: She’s a former actress whose one nude scene is the only reason anyone recognizes her.

Even though Lucifer’s zany and inappropriate, “she really respects him,” German says. “He’s also the only person in her life who pushes her to come out of her uptight, by-the-book ways.”

Plus, she adds, “his character is completely magnetic. Men want to be him. Women want to be with him.”

Henderson jokes that it’s all in Ellis’ British accent, but the Welsh actor agrees that it helps in striking the right balance between Lucifer the punisher and Lucifer the playful muse.

“He speaks like a character from an old Oscar Wilde play at times, that kind of vibe, but he’s also infused with this huge rock ’n’ roll spirit and heart,” Ellis says. “I used the idea of Noel Coward and Mick Jagger’s love child when I was dancing around with how to do this.”

The procedural aspect of Lucifer and teaming Ellis’ supernatural antihero with a cop lets him “experience humanity in a way he hasn’t when he’s just been drinking and carousing and having a good time,” says Henderson.

However, after ruling hell for so long — where he’s wanted back ASAP — the more malevolent side of Lucifer is never far away for those needing to take responsibility for bad behavior.

“We’re not entering some big theological debate,” Ellis says, “but the notion is that if anything maybe we should all look at ourselves and take a look at our actions rather than palm it off on some evil ethos. ‘The devil made me do it’ just doesn’t wash with Lucifer.”