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Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss isn't sounding too optimistic about a series return, noting that "going back is often very difficult."
Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: sherlock
Sherlock Co-Creator Gatiss Not Sounding Optimistic About Series Return
Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss isn't sounding too optimistic about a series return, noting that "going back is often very difficult."
One of the most popular mystery series of this century has been Sherlock, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' modern-day version of Arthur Conan Doyle's popular classic detective. The series starred Benedict Cumberbatch as master detective Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson. Gatiss played Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother and head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, and Andrew Scott as James Moriarty. Sherlock premiered on the BBC in 2010 and ran for three four-part seasons, before ending with a special in 2016. It turned Cumberbatch into an international star and inspired millions of words' worth of slashfic fan fiction written by female fans, especially in China. Unfortunately, a return or a revival is highly unlikely, according to Gatiss.
Gatiss was at The Italian Global Series Festival (IGSF) and, when asked about the chances of the series returning, he said, "It's important to acknowledge when a time is a time. Sometimes, it is there and then it stops, and there's nothing wrong with that. Going back is often very difficult." Fans got their hopes up when series producer Sue Virtue said in 2024 that there was a future for the series if Cumberbatch and Freeman agreed to return. Gatiss had said he pitched a Sherlock feature film to the two stars during the COVID Lockdown years ago that piqued the stars' interest, but nothing came of it. However, Gatiss seemed to hammer the final nail in the coffin when he declared that the series would not be coming back "because Benedict and Martin didn't want to do any more."
Gatiss is currently about to enter a new stage of his career with the upcoming mystery series Bookish, where he plays a gay bookshop owner who solves murders with his found family in London at the end of the Second World War. His character is itself a variation on the Sherlock Holmes "brilliant detective" archetype. It marks the first time Gatiss is the lead, creator, and writer of a TV series.
Meanwhile, fans of Sherlock who miss the series should discover the best new modern version of Sherlock Holmes that seems to replicate the tone of Moffat and Gatiss' series but with a continuity and hook of its own in the form of Joe Emery's current ongoing audio drama podcast Sherlock & Co, where Dr. John Watson launches a podcast with his flatmate Sherlock Holmes to chronicle the latter's crime-solving career. It's as funny, clever, and surreal as the Moffat-Gatiss series, and has been running since 2023 with more stories than the BBC series.
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