No other Martin Freeman-fronted project – be it a movie or TV show – has resonated with its viewers quite like Sherlock.
At least, that’s according to the man himself, who spoke to The Guardian (h/t Digital Spy) about the challenges of playing a character as iconic as Dr. John Watson, and why it’s nigh on impossible to please Sherlock fans.
Freeman has weighed in on the fandom debate before, and even got into hot water when his comments were blown out of proportion on Twitter (shocking, I know), but now, the actor and former MCU star focuses on the unrealistic expectations set by a small portion of fans, and why they have the potential to ruin the overall viewing experience.
Via The Guardian:
Probably nothing I’ve done… has resonated with certain parts of the world’s population the same way Sherlock has… It just hit a lot of buttons for people. By the time we filmed the last ones there were some fans who were so adamant that John and Sherlock were gay, they knew it. And they knew that Steven (Moffat) and Mark (Gatiss) were going to write an episode where we held hands off into the sunset together. So when that didn’t happen, there was a chunk of people going, ‘This is betrayal’.
In this instance, Freeman is clearly citing entitled fans who believe Watson and Holmes ought to be gay, without taking the proper time to consider how a sudden alteration would undo much of the character development that Moffat and Gatiss worked so hard on. It’s a criticism that has made it into the public eye before, too, after former Sherlock star Amanda Abbington (Mary Watson) openly called out season 4 for pandering to the show’s impassioned fanbase. And you can’t exactly blame her.
I don’t think they were very happy with the last series. I think it got very complicated. I love [co-creator] Steven Moffat, but I think they started to pander to the fans, involving a lot of the fandom stuff. I thought, ‘You should just stick to the stories, because they’re much more interesting’.
Next up for Martin Freeman is Ode to Joy and the TV series Breeders. Will we ever see him again in the MCU as Everett Ross, though? Avengers: Endgame is almost upon us, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility – even if IMDb suggests otherwise.