Sherlock Creator Says a Movie is “The Natural Thing to Do”

The acclaimed BBC series Sherlock still has a shot at returning but in a different format as Mark Gatiss, one of the men behind the show addresses the chances of continuing the story with a movie.

Released in 2010, the series has become one of the best adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the famous detective, Martin Freeman as his long-time associated Doctor John H. Watson, Rubpert Graves as D.I. Greg Lestrade, and Una Stubbs as Mrs. Hudson among others. Sherlock run for four full seasons and two specials, with the last batch of episodes premiering in 2017. Since then, fans have been asking for a continuation, and although there are still hopes for the show to return, it may not be with a new season but with a movie.

In an interview with The Guardian, Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss spoke about the challenges behind continuing the story and addressed the possibility of doing it with a movie:

“People think you can just wave a wand. It’s incredibly difficult to get people interested and get films made. I remember talking to Edgar Wright about Ant-Man, into which he put eight years of his life and then didn’t make. Eight years is not short of a decade. Add a few of those up, you’re dead and you’ve made four films. But, also, we were genuinely interested in making them for TV because we love TV. We would love to make a Sherlock movie. It’s the natural thing to do.”

Both Freeman and Cumberbatch have been actively working in the MCU while also being part of Sherlock, but since the BBC series demands a lot of time to be produced, and the actors have many other projects, it has been really hard to get them back to the show.

Related: Martin Freeman Has No Expectations About His Future in the MCU

Sherlock Holmes Still Has a Future Even Without Benedict Cumberbatch

The BBC show may not return for new episodes or a film, but Sherlock Holmes will sure return to the screen. First, since it’s one of the most popular literature characters in pop culture, there will always be adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective.

Besides any future new project that may involve Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. is also set to return in the third movie of the film saga directed by Dexter Flechter and Guy Ritchie. In fact, the latter recently shared news about the development of the film, which mostly depends on the actor.

One of the latest iterations of the character appearing on-screen was play by Henry Cavill, who joined Millie Bobby Brown on Netflix’s Enola Holmes. Although there has been no confirmation of a third film in the franchise, since the first two movies were really successful a third chapter could soon be announced. Beyond that, a spinoff starring Cavill was also rumored to be in development, so that could mean new adventures for the famous detective in the future.