'Sherlock' Season 5 News: 'No Plans at the Moment,' Says EP Mark Gatiss
It has been roughly a year since the fourth season of "Sherlock" concluded, and there is still no confirmation that the show will return. If it does, fans are in for quite a long wait.
Many fans became concerned about the future of "Sherlock" because the season 4 ender seemed to function as a series finale as well. However, co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are leaving the door open for more stories to be told, though it may take a while before anything gets off the ground.
While appearing as a guest on ITV's "Lorraine," Gatiss was asked whether more "Sherlock" episodes are in the cards. Gatiss, who also plays Mycroft Holmes, acknowledged that it would be hard to produce another season because getting everyone together is a challenge. Stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have other commitments, and Gatiss himself working on a new project with Moffat.
"We deliberately left it in a sort of happy place where we could go back," he said. "We have no plans at the moment."
This seems to echo what Moffat told Radio Times in early December. He revealed that he is ready to produce another season of "Sherlock," but it is difficult to match everyone's schedules. "Everyone else is busy," he said. "I vaguely assume we will do it again at some point. I don't think it will be very soon. I think it's due for a bit of a longer gap. It is still so enormously and disproportionately successful."
And, it is precisely because of the show's popularity that Moffat believes they can continue making "Sherlock" episodes for a long time, even if the actors are already old. "It's massive so there will always be a demand for it, I hope. And there is no upper limit on how long we can do it. Holmes and Watson can be 60 or 70," he said.
Should "Sherlock" return for a fifth season, Louise Brealey and Sian Brooke, who respectively play Molly and Eurus, would love to reprise their roles.