After a decade of mostly silence, the hopes of further adventures for Robert Downey, Jr’s, more rough-and-tumble Sherlock Holmes are moving forward, but not in the way you were expecting.
For years, it seemed like the next thing for this franchise was the third film. However, in a new development, The Hollywood Reporter received word RDJ is taking it in a different direction and bringing HBO Max into the mix.
Downey, his wife Susan, and Sherlock producing partner Lionel Wigram are going all-in with two – yes, more than one – series for the streamer. Sadly, the details are a guarded secret and it’s unknown if the MCU megastar plans on acting in either of them.
He has a working relationship currently with HBO as an executive producer on their Perry Mason revival, a character with similar proclivities to Holmes, so Downey is fairly ensconced behind the camera for such projects.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s timeless and crafty detective, whose tales draw on Doyle’s own experience trying to catch Jack the Ripper, is foremost among classic literary icons in portrayals and screen adaptations. 75 actors in total have graced screens big and small as Holmes, setting the world record.
A few of the most noteworthy names other than Downey to wear his hat and smoke his pipe during the last century are Henry Cavill, Basil Rathbone, Benedict Cumberbatch, Johnny Lee Miller, and Christopher Plummer in the obscure and underrated thriller Murder By Decree.
The last time RDJ played the Victorian man of mystery was in 2011 in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opposite Jared Harris as Holmes’s archnemesis – the yin to his yang, Joker to his Batman – Moriarty.
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Though it has admittedly been stalled for quite some time, have no fear, Sherlock Holmes 3 could still happen. THR accuses the threequel of not moving past the development stage but its attached director Dexter Fletcher stated it was merely delayed, albeit “indefinitely.”
The fact that interest in the IP never waned as well as that there are two, count ‘em, scripted series based on the prior duo of movies should be adequate proof the demand is accounted for and the possibility still flickers the light for production on part 3 will turn green.
What do you make of this double-dose series announcement and what does it say about the odds of Sherlock Holmes 3 getting made?