'Sherlock Holmes 3' News: Script in the Works, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law to Return
The script for the next installment in the "Sherlock Holmes" franchise is in the works, and both main stars said they want to return.
A third film to follow 2011's "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" will soon see production, and Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law have already signaled their intention to reprise their roles.
Warner Bros. announced way back in 2011 that the first draft for "Sherlock Holmes 3" had already been started. By 2014, producer Susan Downey, who produced the first two films, confirmed the third installment was in development.
In "Game of Shadows," fans were left with a typical Holmes cliffhanger after Sherlock took evil Professor Moriarty down the Reichenbach Falls to their deaths, only for the detective to show up camouflaged as an armchair at the end of the film, unnoticed even by his good friend Watson, who finally leaves for a long delayed-honeymoon with his wife.
The script currently in progress for the last four years may likely explain how Holmes was able to pull off that feat, faking his own death in the process, as well as bring in a brand new mystery for the detective to solve.
The franchise has earned over $1 billion in the U.S. and U.K. box office, with "Game of Shadows" more poorly reviewed than its predecessor. With a script for the third film now four years in the making, Justin Haythe, who is doing the screenplay for "Sherlock Holmes 3," will have his work cut out for him to outdo the original.
Downey, Jr., who played the title role in the first two movies, and Law, who played his long-suffering sidekick, Dr. John Watson, have expressed keen interest in the sequel from the beginning.
Director Guy Ritchie helmed the two previous films, and it has not yet been confirmed whether he is directing the third movie, as well.