‘Sherlock’ season 4 starts filming today, will air in January 2017
A ton of sites are reporting that the fourth season of BBC’s Sherlock is underway or may have already begun filming.
Den of Geek, like many sites, credits a remark by Mark Gatiss at the London theater Oliviers after accepting his Best Supporting Actor award. The video clip (check it out below) captured his comments with Magic FM, Gatiss confirming that the new series is likely to arrive on BBC One in early 2017 and that its flavor would be “Bittersweet. It’s always bittersweet”.
The news and rumors have been swirling after PBS exec Paula Kerger spoke at an American press event in January, stating that “we do have the next Sherlock announced, that is coming up about a year from now.”
Creator Steven Moffat has repeated that the series will be “three stand-alone films, 90 minutes each, and an ongoing mystery, as there sort of always is,” exactly the format of the previous three “Seasons” of the popular showing starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
Moffat confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that no guest stars have yet been booked for series 4. “But as Mark [Gatiss] always says, it’s better to be a star-maker. We found all these people, Benedict, [Andrew] Scott, Lara Pulver. These people launched careers on the basis of doing the show. It’s tough because we got Benedict and Martin—they’re probably the two biggest British film stars. If you pay extra money to cast somebody famous, are they actually going to provide you with one single extra viewer?”
That said, fans can expect Amanda Abbington, Una Stubbs, Louise Brealey, Rupert Graves and Jonathan Aris to return for series four. Technically speaking, there should also be a baby in there somewhere.
The major question mark is whether and how Andrew Scott will be back in the role of Moriarty proper, or whether the series three “Miss me?” cliff-hanger will turn out to be all a work of pre-recorded video shenanigans.
Moffat added that series four would contain answers “to questions which nobody has asked” and that “we’re very exultant about a little thing we’ve set up that no one is talking about…”
Asked what the theme of series four would be, Moffat said, “It’s consequences. Chickens come home to roost. It’s dark in some ways – obviously it’s great fun and a Sherlock Holmes romp and all that – but there’s a sense of things coming back to bite you. It’s not a safe, sensible way to live. It’s hilarious and exhilarating some days, but some days it’s going to be bloody frightening.”
Expect news at it happens.