Sherlock Will Return For A Special, Followed By Three New Episodes

Recently, Martin Freeman got fans of the BBC series Sherlock in a tizzy by teasing that a Christmas special might be in the works and is planned for December of 2015. Now, we’ve learned something official about the future of the massively popular modern-day mystery drama.

Today, BBC One revealed that the plan is to do a Christmas special followed by a fourth season of three episodes, writing:

“We’re ready to unleash the most shocking and surprising series of #Sherlock yet. The only thing is to expect is the unexpected…”

I never really got into Sherlock, as I didn’t love Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in the title role (I know, I’m probably the only one). Though many fans of the series have claimed he’s the best iteration of the iconic detective to date, I’ve found myself enjoying Jonny Lee Miller’s portrayal on the CBS series Elementary quite a bit more. That said, I have watched all three series of Sherlock – though the third was the worst in my opinion. Hopefully the new episodes can work to get Sherlock back on track.

Shooting on the special is set to get underway in January of 2015, with all three episodes of the fourth season set to roll cameras later next year. As always, Sherlock will be working around the busy schedules of Freeman and Cumberbatch, both of whom have been quite busy in recent months. Freeman recently starred on the excellent FX miniseries Fargo and has Peter Jackson’s trilogy topper The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies in the can. Meanwhile, Cumberbatch is garnering awards buzz for playing cryptographer Alan Turing in this fall’s The Imitation Game, lent his voice to animated fantasy Magik and The Penguins of Madagascar, and is currently shooting the Whitey Bulger pic Black Mass with Johnny Depp.

Sherlock certainly isn’t a top priority for either actor at this point, which means that fans will probably have to say a permanent goodbye to the series sooner or later. Whether this fourth season will be the final outing for Holmes and Watson remains to be seen – but with each episode clocking in at 90 minutes, it’s almost like Sherlock is a film series with four installments left to go. Not really a terrible situation for fans to face at all.