Benedict Cumberbatch says the upcoming season of Sherlock might be its last

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Like many of you, I've become a big fan of Sherlock, the BBC/PBS series which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The wait between seasons may require a little bit of patience but, for the most part, each episode of the series has given us something special and quite entertaining. According to a recent GQ interview with Benedict Cumberbatch, we may want to savour the episodes of the upcoming fourth season as it's possible they may be the last.

It might be the end of an era. It feels like the end of an era, to be honest. It goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately.

Although Cumberbatch doesn't seem overly optimistic that Sherlock will continue, it's not like he's unhappy with playing the role, far from it, but with both Martin Freeman and himself becoming increasingly occupied in the world of feature films, it will only get more difficult for the pair to carve out time for Sherlock in their schedules. That said, Cumberbatch is smart enough never to say never.

We never say never on the show. I’d love to revisit it, I’d love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that, but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we’ve made something very complete as it is, so I think we’ll just wait and see. The idea of never playing him again is really galling.

I'd honestly be surprised if this is the last we see of Cumberbatch and Freeman as Sherlock and Watson, but we may have to get used to even larger delays or perhaps even fewer episodes. The fourth season of Sherlock will premiere on January 1, 2017 and according to Cumberbatch will be "without a doubt" the darkest season yet.

In a ideal world, would you prefer to see Sherlock wrap things up with its fourth season or get 1-3 episodes every few years for as long as the cast and crew are able?