Freeman Gives Hope With Announcement That ‘Sherlock’ Season 4 Will Be Released Christmas 2016
Fans of BBC’s modern day Sherlock have been in a state of torture for over two years, awaiting the return of the much loved show, and this week it was announced that there is finally reason to celebrate. Martin Freeman has publicly confirmed that Season 4 of Sherlock will be released this year, “around Christmas.”
Martin Freeman, who plays the character John Watson, took time out from his current filming of the BBC detective drama to guest star on The Graham Norton Show and give the beleaguered fans some very good news regarding Season 4 of the show. The episode of Graham Norton that carries the tale of a Christmas release is scheduled to be aired Friday night.
“We are back filming now and the three shows will, I imagine, be out around Christmas.”
With six years already passing since the first season of Sherlock and two years since the last season, with only a Christmas special last year to break up the hiatus, anyone who watches the show is no stranger to waiting. The knowledge that the show will one day be back of course existed, but as Hello Giggles pointed out, it seemed as if Season 4 would not be arriving to our television sets until late 2017 or at the earliest and best hoped for, early 2017. The Abominable Bride Christmas special may have helped to satiate fans’ appetites 2015 but only barely, and we have been ready for more from before it ended.
Martin Freeman teases 'Sherlock' series four launch date
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!https://t.co/E5S9fQ2dp6
— Ali Baluch (@baluchx) April 30, 2016
In fact, once news hit that Tom Hiddleston could possibly be joining the cast next season as the third Sherlock brother, Sherrinford, fans could hardly contain themselves. The Inquisitr previously wrote of how the TV show’s co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock’s brother Mycroft) were hesitant of their casting choice because of Hiddleston’s crazy busy schedule, but considering the demand for Cumberbatch and Freeman too, it could possibly work. However, that was still just speculation, but so is the possibility that Andrew Scott might reprise his role as the brilliant but extremely terrifying Moriarty.
One of the major hold-ups to the filming and release of Sherlock Season 4 has been the very busy schedules that Freeman and Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, have been keeping since they both recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cumberbatch has become Dr. Strange and the movie of the same name is scheduled to be in theaters by November. Martin Freeman on the other hand will be getting a starring role in the upcoming and much anticipated summer blockbuster Captain America: Civil War, in a role that reportedly will have him returning to the Marvel Universe in other films in the future.
Cumberbatch recently spoke of Season 4, and according to Independent U.K., he advised fans that the wait is very much “worth it” while Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt have hinted at a darker, more tragedy-oriented drama with “ghosts of the past bringing adventure, romance and terror.” Suspicions that Moriarty will indeed return are fueled by these expected “ghosts of the past rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.”
Family Watson!
Baby, Mary and John in the place. pic.twitter.com/Sj8CxIP8mI— Gwen (@GWarstan) April 29, 2016
It has also been said that in Season 4, even as Watson and wife Mary, Amanda Abbington, become first-time parents, the move to a darker, more gothic side could spell death for the new mother, as she did in the Arthur Conan Doyle original books. Since even Moriarty can return from the grave though, chances are good that Mary would not be too keen to stay dead either.
A thing that is also worth noting is that Netflix is scheduled to bring on a Sherlock documentary by the end of the month that will include the full cast of the show.
[Photo Courtesy of PBS/ AP Images]
