[title]
The fourth series of 'Sherlock' comes to the BBC in early 2017, with one of our favourite lesser-known British actors, Toby Jones, playing a new villain opposite Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes and Martin Freeman's Watson. But could it be the last ever series of the show?
Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, has dropped a big hint that this could be his last outing as Sherlock – or at least his last outing for a very long time.
Talking to GQ ahead of his lead role in Marvel's 'Doctor Strange' later this month, Cumberbatch was blunt when asked if this might be the last series.
'It might be the end of an era,' Cumberbatch mused. 'It feels like the end of an era, to be honest. It goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately. We never say never on the show. I’d love to revisit it, I’d love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that, but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we’ve made something very complete as it is, so I think we’ll just wait and see. The idea of never playing him again is really galling.'
'Sherlock' creator and writer Steven Moffat made similar noises earlier in the year. Back in July, talking about the new series, he said, 'I don't know how long we can keep it going. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show – but it absolutely could be. We do have two film stars in the programme. They haven't needed to do these jobs for a very long time. I'm amazed that we've got this far.'
For now, though, we have series four of 'Sherlock' to look forward to.
We already know the names of the first two episodes, 'The Six Thatchers' and 'The Lying Detective', with the name of the third and final one still to be revealed. Hopefully the three-part series will follow in the footsteps of series three and appear on the BBC very early in the new year.
The new series of 'Sherlock' is expected on the BBC in early 2017. 'Doctor Strange' opens on Friday October 25.