In 2010, before he was a household name and just one year after the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie, Benedict Cumberbatch rejuvenated one of the best fictional heroes of all time. Along with Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson, Cumberbatch brought the great detective triumphantly into the 21st century. Now, 14 years after the hit series Sherlock debuted, this influential reboot could be making another comeback. According to Sue Vertue — who co-produced Sherlock with Steven Moffat — there is still a possible “future” for the franchise.
Speaking to Deadline, Vertue said she very much wanted to somehow continue Sherlock. “It’s just getting everybody aligned, it’s getting the actors to want to do it,” she said, a statement that echoes something Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss said back in April. At that time, Gatiss indicated that a movie could be in the works, saying, “We’d like to make a film, but trying to get everyone together is very difficult.”
When Sherlock debuted in 2010, Cumberbatch wasn’t the movie star he is today, and Freeman was mostly known for playing Tim in the original version of The Office. As Holmes and Watson, Cumberbatch and Freeman managed to not only recapture the famous partnership created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but also make the characters feel like they really could exist in the modern day. Cumberbatch, in particular, captured the delicate combination of Holmes’s rudeness and charm.
Sherlock leaned into the idea that the great detective was a “high-functioning sociopath” with so much zeal that it was occasionally hard to believe its basic characters and stories were over a century old, but the love and respect for the source material on display made Sherlock what it was. Although various plot twists are unique to the series, some classic tales — like “The Hounds of Baskerville” — were updated in a way that made the plots a bit more explicable to modern viewers.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in 2016.
But because Sherlock began in 2010 and ended in 2017, the series is already strangely dated. The tiny cellphones of Season 1 are a distant memory, and the visages of Cumberbatch and Freeman are probably now more readily associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe than 221B Baker Street.
So, what would a Sherlock movie be about? If it were a sequel to Season 4, that could give the series a chance to improve upon a mixed set of episodes. A movie could also expand upon Sherlock’s sister, Eurus Holmes (Siân Brooke), who was revealed late in Season 4.
But perhaps a Sherlock movie would be best served by rebooting the character yet again. In 2016, the franchise released a one-off episode called “The Abominable Bride,” set in the Victorian period of the original stories but still starring the cast in their familiar roles. Perhaps a new movie could do something similar by creating a self-contained one-off that allows new viewers to experience the adventures of Holmes and Watson anew.
At this point, it’s been seven years since Season 4, meaning the show is unlikely to be fresh in everyone’s minds. A reboot with all the same actors would be the ideal solution. Sherlock, as a show, has some fascinating lore, but the reason Sherlock, as a character, keeps getting new fans after 137 years is that readers and viewers don’t need to know anything to dive in. With Holmes, there can always be a fresh start.
