Season 4 of the British crime drama TV series “Sherlock” will not be happening anytime soon but the producers of the show decided to come out with a Victorian special to air on December 25 which is sure to quench the thirst of the fans.
A new trailer for the Victorian special of “Sherlock” has already been released and it showed Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Dr. John Watson, played by Martin Freeman, and the whole gang in 19th century England, notes Entertainment Weekly.
Everyone knows that 19th century England is also known as the Victorian era that is why the show is called Victorian special.
The trailer also showed Sherlock being a better-mannered person in his modern version while Watson is pretty much the same, with the exception of sporting a new mustache.
A contemporary adaptation
“Sherlock” is a contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was created for TV by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and its first season premiered on July 25, 2010.
Each of the first three seasons of “Sherlock” only had three episodes apiece, but the TV series is very popular especially in its home country, the UK.
And unlike most TV series, “Sherlock” does not air yearly but every other year. Still, despite such airing pattern, it continues to draw in viewers. In fact, in the UK alone, its first season actually netted 8.82 million viewers. The figure grew to 10.23 million viewers when Season 2 aired early in 2012. Season 3, which aired early last year, got the biggest viewership ratings in the UK, with 11.82 million viewers.
Given its release pattern in its past two seasons, fans were expecting that “Sherlock” will air early next year. However, production for Season 4 of “Sherlock” has been delayed.
Showrunner Steven Moffat actually confirmed the delay when he said that filming for the new adventures of the greatest detective of all time will begin around April. Accordingly, the delay was caused by conflicts in the schedule of both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, notes the Christian Today.
Cumberbatch just finished his Broadway stint and he is set to work for Marvel Studios to play the eponymous lead role in the upcoming film “Doctor Strange,” who is also a Marvel superhero. Martin Freeman was also busy with his other passion projects.
Will still air in 2016
Although there have been speculations suggesting that Season 4 of “Sherlock” will air in 2017, Mofatt confirmed that the TV series will definitely air in 2016.
Assuming that they will start production on April, as Moffat hinted, they could probably finish filming within a month’s time given that “Sherlock” only features three episodes in one season.
With such production timeline, it is likely for “Sherlock” to air on BBC in the UK and PBS in the US around the second half of next year, which is basically its airing schedule during its first season.
Mofatt also revealed in a recent interview that fellow showrunner and writer Mark Gatiss has already started writing episodes for Season 4 of “Sherlock.” He also confirmed that they already have plans for the story they will do for the fourth season.
He added that he is not pressured at all by the recent delay in the production of “Sherlock” because they know what they’re doing and that they have a couple of things lined up that are sure to surprise fans.
“Sherlock” is indeed a very popular and widely followed TV series because if it does not have a massive and ardent following the way it has, the show will not survive with its huge gap in between seasons.