Long before he secured his role as Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Benedict Cumberbatch was solving riddles and cracking cases as Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective found in the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The BBC series based on the character spanned four seasons – so far, at least – and fans continue to hold out hope that Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman will return for a fifth outing of Sherlock at some point. If you’ve been keeping up, though, you’ll know that there’s been much back-and-forth (and some heated controversy) about the show’s future, and during a recent interview with NY Daily News, Cumberbatch had some discouraging words to share.
“No time soon. Don’t hold your breath, but you never say never. But no time soon. Never say never — that’s what we always say on that show — but we’re all busy getting a kick out of doing other things, and that’s not to say it’s reached its end. It just means not right now.”
While it’s nice that the actor isn’t totally ruling it out, it’s pretty clear that he’s in no rush to do another season of Sherlock. And really, can you blame him given how wildly busy his schedule has become? Not to mention that showrunner Steven Moffat’s already signed up to helm another TV adaptation in the form of a new series based around Audrey Niffenegger’s sci-fi/romance novel The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Martin Freeman, meanwhile, seems even less enthusiastic than Cumberbatch, as he’s said he thinks they should quit while they’re ahead. What’s more, he also found himself receiving some backlash after criticisms he made about the Sherlock fandom – criticisms that Benedict Cumberbatch called “pathetic.”
Hopefully there’s no bad blood between them though and the actors can sort things out. Sherlock is still amongst the best work they’ve both done and it’d be a real shame if we never got to see them reprise their roles again, wouldn’t you say?