Sherlock Holmes 3 Director Offers Update on Robert Downey Jr. Sequel

The Offer director Dexter Fletcher signed up for the unenviable task of following Guy Ritchie on the Robert Downey Jr.-starring Sherlock Holmes franchise, and in spite of numerous delays, he still thinks the project is going to get made. The project, which at one point had a December 2020 release date, has been in a constant state of flux since about 2017, but Fletcher thinks that the project is too good to just fall by the wayside, and feels confident that it will be done.

When the project was first announced, Downey was set to earn a massive payday, and the state of California was poised to give millions in tax breaks for the production to be shot there.

“The pandemic derailed it,” Fletcher told Collider. “I do think it will get made. I think it has to be made. I don’t know what the timeline of that is, unfortunately, but I believe it should be. It’s fantastic. I think it’s about all the right people being at the right place, at the right time. I think it’s that. It’s one of those cruel twists of fate, where the pandemic hit and that scattered people around the world to the wind. But I know that the appetite is huge for it, and I’m sure there are other people acutely aware of that as well. But I believe it should be because it’s brilliant. I very much hope so.”

Not long ago, producers were toying with the idea that there would be not only a third film, but potential for spinoffs and sequels beyond that, as well. 

“We think there’s an opportunity to build it out more,” Susan Downey said back in 2020. “Spin-off characters from a third movie, to see what’s going on in the television landscape, to see what Warner Media is starting to build out, things with HBO and HBO Max….I do think that the decade of tutelage and observation, what we were both able to have with Marvel, watching them build out and see all the opportunities, was invaluable. It was like a master class. They really did know what they were doing and they had this tight-knit group of people from [the] jump locked into a vision.”