Last month, Sherlock fans were given a hard pill to swallow when star Martin Freeman – who plays the beloved John Watson on the phenomenally successful BBC detective show – complained that making the drama wasn’t “fun anymore” due to increasing fan expectations which made it impossible to live up to the hype.
Freeman’s comments came out during an interview with The Telegraph and now, as he’s doing the rounds to promote Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch has chatted with the same publication. Of course, The Telegraph couldn’t resist pressing the Doctor Strange actor for his own opinions on the matter to see if he agrees with his co-star at all. It seems that Cumberbatch is definitely on the side of the fans here, even going so far as to call Freeman’s words “pathetic.”
“It’s pretty pathetic if that’s all it takes to let you not want to take a grip of your reality. What, because of expectations? I don’t know. I don’t necessarily agree with that… I just don’t feel affected by that in the same way, I have to say.”
Obviously, Cumberbatch is too much of a gent to outright criticize his longtime friend and collaborator (on top of Sherlock, the duo are both part of The Hobbit trilogy and the MCU), but it’s clear that the actors have an extreme difference of opinion here. This could be awkward if they ever returned to work on Sherlock together, but the stars themselves have said they aren’t planning on it anytime soon. In fact, only creator Steven Moffat remains hopeful that a season 5 is on the cards.
Also, while this is completely conjecture on our part, what we’re now going to call “PatheticGate” does bring to mind a rumor from last year which stated that Cumberbatch and Freeman’s friendship had soured to the point where things were “frosty” between them on the Sherlock set. This might have been nothing, but – if true – it certainly looks like their relationship hasn’t improved over the past little while, which doesn’t bode very well for a new season of the show.
