It’s a question the cast and crew of Sherlock must be sick of answering: when is the hit BBC detective drama coming back? The show, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the super sleuth and Martin Freeman as his best pal John Watson, reached a sort of ending point with season 4, leading the creators to claim that it was on indefinite hiatus. That hasn’t stopped fans from demanding more concrete info on if and when it will return, though.
While attending the Radio Times Covers Party, co-showrunner – and Sherlock’s brother Mycroft – Mark Gatiss was prodded for an update on the series. His answer turned out to be pretty illuminating, too, as he ruled out that it could return in the next two years. Or even that he and co-writer Steven Moffat would begin working on it in that time. Instead, the pair plan to get started on their new project: a TV revamp of Dracula.
“We’re doing Dracula, which is going to take two years, at least. We’re not going to be doing Sherlock whilst we’re doing Dracula. So it’s not going to happen in the immediate future. Never say never, but no, we don’t have an idea.”
Moffat himself was also posed the same question and, while he didn’t provide a time frame, he supported the usual statement that he and Gatiss give, which is that Sherlock could return at some point, but it won’t be for a while.
“We haven’t got an immediate plan,” Moffat commented, before adding: “I think maybe the time for a longer gap is upon us….I can see us making more Sherlocks way in the future.”
The good news for Sherlock fans is that at least we’ll have another TV show from the minds behind the detective drama while we play the (long) waiting game. Gatiss also revealed at the event that the writers would start putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and begin work on Dracula in March. So going by his estimates, we imagine the series will materialize in early 2020. As always, watch this space for more.