Here's everything we know so far about the Sherlock season 4, which we'll finally get in January.
We're got a new Sherlock season four teaser trailer! (Emphasis on the tease.) The video is only 15 seconds long and, let's face it, is more like a DVD menu than a trailer, but it still piques our excitement about the upcoming episodes.
The promo shows Sherlock and John sitting, frozen, in Sherlock's apartment. Normal enough, right? Except the apartment is flooded with water, with Sherlock's possessions (like his prized violin) floating about. It's this just one giant metaphor for Sherlock and John being in over their heads? (Wait, is that water hot? How literal is the BBC going here.) Is this something that takes place within Sherlock's mind palace?
Whatever the answer, the promo's title certainly implies this isn't just another one of Sherlock's harmless experiments gone wrong: "It's Not A Game Anymore." Check out the teaser for yourself and share your theories on what it might mean in the comments at the bottom of the page...
We also have a whole bunch of new images to celebrate the not-too-distant premiere of Sherlock season 4 on PBS. Hit the gallery up top to get a fresh look at the upcoming season!
Here's everything else we know...
Sherlock Season 4 Release Date
It's official, the Sherlockseason 4 release date is New Year's Day, January 1st, 2017 on PBS. That first episode is called "The Six Thatchers."
PBS revealed the news with a fun image...
Sherlock Season 4 Trailer
The first trailer for Sherlock season 4 has arrived and it's action-packed and very mysterious. Check out the full teaser below, then speculate what it might all mean with our trailer analysis...
Sherlock Season 4 Story
As expected, series three will indeed be "three stand-alone films, 90 minutes each, and an ongoing mystery, as there sort of always is" confirmed Moffat. BBC released this official (somewhat vague) synopsis for the goings-on of Sherlock season 4:
[Season 4] begins with the nation’s favourite detective, the mercurial Sherlock Holmes, back once more on British soil, as Doctor Watson and his wife Mary prepare for their biggest ever challenge – becoming parents for the first time.
Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat had this to say about the season in an official press release:
Sherlock series four - here we go again! Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street - and it always feels like coming home. Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson bringing adventure, romance and terror in their wake. This is the story we’ve been telling from the beginning. A story about to reach its climax...
At SDCC, Cumberbatch teased season 4 of Sherlock, saying: "It's a genuine emotional roller coaster this series." ("With jokes," Vertue added. There are always jokes.) Gatiss echoed the sentiment, saying of the series as a whole: "We've just tried very hard over the last six years to keep it evolving ... You've got to put the characters through the emotional wringer. You can't just have story-of-the-week."
Abbington added: "[Season 4 is] really dark. It's the darkest that Steven and Mark have written ... When we read them, all of us, we were kind of overwhelmed by them, because they were shocking and amazing, as they always are. But, if we can pull this off, it's amazing."
In that same post-"Abominable Bride" interview, Gatiss and Moffat spoke about how much of the joy in writing Sherlock comes from fleshing out those quieter, sometimes domestic moments that wouldn't have made it into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Gatiss teased:
Being in the middle of writing series 4 at the moment, if anything is like a good writing exercise for the show, is to look at the stories and think, 'What did Doyle not do in terms of what must have gone on.' If you have two men living together, at some point, even if you back-project, he would have asked him, 'Have you ever um…' ... You look at a story you’re very familiar with and think, I wonder what else happened in this domestic situation that we were never privy to.
Could this mean we'll be getting more John and Sherlock domestic moments in season 4? Perhaps, Gatiss elaborated on his comments, referencing John asking Sherlock to be his best man as an example of something Conan Doyle didn't write about, but that makes sense within the context of the BBC adaptation.
When talking generally about the themes and story for the season, Moffat mysteriously teased: He mysteriously added: "I think there's still an ongoing element that people haven't really picked up on." Time for a Sherlock season one through three rewatch? Always.
Sherlock Season 4 Villains
We know which classic Sherlock Holmes villain Toby Jones will be playing in Sherlock season 4: Culverton Smith.
Smith originally appears in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1913 story "The Adventure of the Dying Detective." He is a villain who uses tropical infectious diseases to murder. In the Conan Doyle story, he murders his nephew in this manner, attracting Sherlock's suspicions. Thus, he sends Sherlock a spring-loaded box capable of infecting those who open it with a deadly diseason.
The story begins when John Watson is called to check on his friend Sherlock Holmes, who has apparently contracted a grave disease. (As Mrs. Hudson informs Watson, Holmes hasn't eaten for three days.) Of course, Sherlock is faking to draw a confession out of Smith, something he manages, but not without seriously worrying John in the mean time — a character-driven plot Sherlock could have a lot of fun with.
"The Adventures of the Dying Detective" is set in Watson's second year of marriage, which implies Mary Watson will still be alive and well in the second episode of season 4. (Yeah, we're still worried about her, though.)
Sherlock Season 4 Episodes
The first two episodes are called "The Six Thatchers" and "The Lying Detective." That second one isn't such a surprise, given that we already know that Culverton Smith will play a large role in season four — and he first appeared in "The Dying Detective," in which Sherlock up and fakes having contracted a fatal illness. But what could that first one allude to?
We may not yet know what the Sherlock exactly what the season 4 premiere will be about (though we know the script was penned by Mark Gatiss), but Rachel Talalay will be directing the first episode of the three-part season.
This is great news. Talalay is a phenomenal director. If you're looking for examples of her recent work (though her resume, in general, is quite prolific), might I suggest checking out the two-part season finale of Doctor Who season 9? It's a masterpiece. (Talalay also directed the two-part finale of Doctor Who season 8.)
Nick Hurran (Sherlock's "His Last Vow," Doctor Who's "The Day Of The Doctor") will be directing season 4, episode 2, which just begun filming.
Benjamin Caron will be directing the Sherlock season four finale, per this Instagram announcement. Like Talalay, Caron has never before directed an episode of Sherlock, but he has stepped behind the camera for shows like Skins, My Mad Fat Diary, The Crown, and Wallander. It will be interesting to see what Caron brings to Sherlock.
Some combination of Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Stephen Thompson have been responsible for every Sherlock script so far, and we see no reason why that should change for series four.
We know for sure that Mark Gatiss has penned the script for the season premiere, just like last season's "The Empty Hearse."
In a post-"Abominable Bride" interview, Gatiss spoke about the relative light-heartedness of season 3, implying that the first episode of season 4 might be less-so for Sherlock, John, and especially Mary, saying:
We did make [episodes] one and two [of season 3] actually more light-hearted because we knew he was going to shoot Magnusson, and we deliberately set out to make it like the best times for the three of them as a new team, that they would really have a great time. And the special really does bridge that in so many ways. Even though Mary is very proactive and a huge part, it's a sort of breathing space between 'Vow' and the next one.
Guys, we're really worried about Mary...
Our friends across the pond at Den of Geek UK note that the closest original Holmes story (at least in title) is "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons," a Lestrade-heavy case in which busts of the French leader are at one point smashed in the search for a missing pearl. Might Lestrade finally get to step into the spotlight for an episode this season? Given that there are only three and this would be the season's first outing, it doesn't seem so likely, but you never know!
Moffat also teased that the first two episodes would be 60 minutes of plot and 30 minutes of drama, while the final episode would be a whole lot more plot.
The first two episode titles line up with the three, one-word episode teases Moffat and Gatiss gave us at San Diego Comic Con: Thatcher, Smith, and Sherrinford.
We're still waiting to hear about Sherrinford, which, for us, was the most exciting name to hear, as Sherrinford Holmes is the sometimes-imagined older brother of Mycroft and Sherlock. Given that the Holmes' brothers mentioned another sibling in season 3's His Last Vow, this is most likely the person they were referring to.
Could Sherrinford be the key to understanding the mysterious "Redbeard" references? Though Redbeard has been previously explained as Sherlock's childhood dog, we think there might be more to the reference than meets the eye. As we know from previous interviews, Moftiss have refused to tell Vertue who Redbeard is in the past, with Moffat emphasizing that the Redbeard-as-dog we saw before was "in a dream." Will we be meeting another Holmes' brother in the third episode of season 4?