‘Sherlock Holmes 3’ Still In Development Hell, But Plot Revealed To Take Robert Downey Jr. And Jude Law Stateside
Although its production date remains as elusive as the villainous Moriarty, franchise producer Susan Downey has not only confirmed that work continues on a third Robert Downey Jr.-led Sherlock Holmes film, but also that it will take the titular detective and his erstwhile companion on a trip to America.
First announced in 2011, the ostensibly-named Sherlock Holmes 3 currently exists in a textbook state of development hell, its production start date having been rescheduled so many times over the past fourteen years that it would eventually lose franchise director Guy Ritchie in 2019 before ultimately being indefinitely delayed in 2021 due to scheduling conflicts arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[Downey Jr. and I] started going and and then COVID hit, and they were like ‘We’re gonna stand it down. Robert’s got some other things he wants to do,” said the film’s latest assigned director, Dexter Fletcher, in confirming its delay. “These things are so big that you don’t wanna just chisel them into something. [But] I know that Robert will not let that fish off the hook.”
To this end, Downey provided Holmes and Watson’s latest proof of life confirmation while speaking with Collider‘s Steve Weintraub at a recent screening of her latest movie, the Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stainfield-led action outing Play Dirty.
Asked if she could provide any update on its production, Downey admitted, “God, that is loaded.”
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“How much do I give? We came pretty close at one point, and I think I am grateful that we didn’t make that version of it. I won’t go into what that was, which isn’t meant to sound cryptic. It just didn’t work out timing-wise, because we couldn’t get it in before Jude [Law] was going to be unavailable. I think it was a good thing that we all stepped back. And then there was a big old pandemic and all that kind of stuff.”
I would love to bring a third Sherlock to the world. I really would. And we’ve been playing with it for a long time.”
But far from leaving Weintraub empty-handed, Downey did provide her host with a brief insight into its apparently America-based story.
“We’ve been talking about a slightly different direction. It’s always been kind of set in America, and whether that’s a good idea or not, I’m not sure, but I love it. I love that idea. So, I would just love to do it. It’s just hard. It’s been a while, the bar is really high, or at least Robert [Downey Jr.] has set the bar really high, so I don’t know.”
And unfortunately for fans, Sherlock Holmes 3 is not the only franchise production to disappear into the shadows.
Though whispers in 2022 suggested that two, Downey Jr.-produced Sherlock Holmes spin-off series were in development for HBO Max, neither of them have received an official announcement.
