Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes are the only roles that Robert Downey Jr. has ever played more than once in a career that dates back over 50 years, which is an impressive track record given the success that his respective portrayals enjoyed. The former saw him become the biggest and highest-paid movie star in the industry, and the early years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were largely built outwards from Iron Man, with the hero positioned as the face of the entire franchise.
As for the iconic detective, both the first installment and sequel A Game of Shadows managed to haul in over $500 million apiece at the box office, but the third movie still looks like it could be a long way away. Director Dexter Fletcher, who already faces a tough task mimicking the visual flair that his predecessor Guy Ritchie brought to the series, admitted that the project was on the back burner last year and there’s no word of when it might come together.
Downey Jr. remains committed to the brand, though, and it was revealed a few months back that his Team Downey production company is intent to establish an entire shared universe based around the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Not only that, but insider Daniel Richtman now claims that the actor wants to make Sherlock Holmes as big as Iron Man, although the tipster doesn’t offer any sort of details as to what exactly that would entail or how it’s supposed to happen.
Therefore, using our own deductive powers based on a vague blanket statement, we’d guess that it would involve the Sherlock universe aping the Iron Man formula to launch a series of sequels, spinoffs and possibly even TV shows, but details are so scarce that we can’t know for sure.
