Benedict Cumberbatch Pours Cold Water on More Sherlock, Lays Out Exactly What He’d Need to Return

Dave Nemetz
·2-min read

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Benedict Cumberbatch to put his Sherlock coat and scarf back on.

Cumberbatch, who played the legendary sleuth for four seasons on PBS/Masterpiece’s modern remake, was blunt when asked by our sister site Variety what it would take for him to reprise his role as Sherlock Holmes. “A lot of money,” he said, adding that a new season of Sherlock would have “to be better than it ever was. You leave them or yourselves wanting more. There’s always that itch to scratch, but I think it would have to be the superlative version of what we’ve already achieved.”

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It’s been eight years now since Cumberbatch last inhabited the lead role on Sherlock opposite Martin Freeman’s John Watson, with Season 4 wrapping up in January 2017. Since then, Cumberbatch has mostly moved into film roles with Oscar-nominated turns in The Imitation Game and The Power of the Dog and a starring role as Marvel superhero Doctor Strange in a number of big-screen blockbusters. He has returned to TV, though, for the Showtime limited series Patrick Melrose and Netflix’s Eric.

Both Cumberbatch and Freeman have seemed cool to the idea of returning as Sherlock and Watson in recent years, but series creator Steven Moffat would love to bring the series back and would “start writing tomorrow,” he told BBC’s Today show in 2023, if Cumberbatch and Freeman were onboard. And the actors haven’t ruled it out entirely, either, with Freeman saying that same year: “If something comes up that persuades us all — it would have to be us all — then my door would always be open.”

Would you like to see Cumberbatch back solving crimes as Sherlock Holmes? The game’s afoot: Join us in the comments below to share your thoughts.

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