Guy Ritchie’s two Sherlock Holmes movies were largely marketed and sold on the back of Robert Downey Jr.’s star power and little else, although the promise of seeing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous literary creation being reinvented for the umpteenth time as the focus of a big budget, anachronistic and steampunk-influenced action comedy franchise certainly helped.
Outside of the central pairing of Downey Jr. and Jude Law, the first installment and sequel A Game of Shadows were more interested in filling out the ensemble casts with talented actors as opposed to genuine A-listers. Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan, Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace and Stephen Fry lent support across the duology, and while they’re all very good at their jobs, you wouldn’t call any of them massive names.
However, insider Daniel Richtman is offering up the intel that the leading man wants some big stars to appear in Sherlock Holmes 3, although the tipster doesn’t go to the lengths of actually revealing any specifics in terms of who’s wanted and what role they’re wanted for. The third film is still miles off, too, with RDJ ironically having the most open schedule of all the major players.
Law is set to move straight from Fantastic Beasts 3 into Disney’s live-action Peter Pan remake, while director Dexter Fletcher recently signed on to helm the Paramount+ series about the making of The Godfather. Downey Jr., meanwhile, doesn’t have any big screen projects currently in development, but having announced his plans to develop a Sherlock Holmes universe for Warner Bros., the iconic sleuth has clearly never strayed too far from his thoughts despite his next outing as the character having been in the works for a decade at this stage.
