Sherlock Star Benedict Cumberbatch Says “Never Say Never” to Season 5 Return

The BBC Sherlock TV series helped catapult stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and Andrew Scott into household names throughout its run (thanks in large part to a streaming deal with Netflix here in the United States), but it all came to an end with the fourth series in 2017. At the time it seemed to really be the end for the show as it had been on the air for seven years at that point and the stars had jumped ship to much bigger things (with both of them even joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe to boot). That said, revivals are all the rage on television and Cumberbatch seems to think that a return to Sherlock isn’t entirely out of the question, albeit unlikely.

“I’m the worst person to ask on this because I never say never, obviously,” the actor told Collider in a new interview. “But I don’t know. And I’m the worst person to ask because my slate’s pretty, pretty full at the moment, as is Martin [Freeman, Watson] and all the other key players involved. So, who knows? Maybe one day, if the script’s right. And I say ‘the script,’ maybe it could be a film rather than the series. Who knows? But anyway, not for now.”

Throughout its time on the air Sherlock aired four, three-episode series and one special episode. That may not sound like much but each of the episodes clocked in at nearly 90 minutes apiece, meaning they debuted almost three feature-length movies with each new batch. The show would adapt popular Arthur Conan Doyle stories like “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and “The Final Problem,” putting a modern spin on the famous detective, his sidekick, and the many other characters that populated their world.

What’s worth noting is that even though the fourth series was produced and aired, the creators of the show have previously expressed an interest in returning and even confirmed they have plans for a fifth season should they have a window of opportunity to do so with Cumberbatch and Freeman.

“Rather excitingly, Mark (Gatiss) and I, for no particular reason, just started plotting out what we could do in the future,” creator Steven Moffat previously said (H/T The Independent). “We plotted out the whole of series four and five. The ideas we had that day, I thought were the best we’ve ever had. So we have got plans – but our plans don’t tend to be ‘Let’s blow up the world or cast the most famous person in the world’, they tend to be ‘What exciting twists and turns can we add to this?’ and I think we’ve got some crackers!”

Cumberbatch is currently in the midst of filming Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, due out in 2022, it’s expected that Freeman will return for the upcoming Black Panther 2 as well.