It will be a little longer before audiences sees Robert Downey Jr. return as Sherlock Holmes again as Warner Bros. has pushed back Sherlock Holmes 3 from its Christmas 2020 date a full year to December 22nd, 2021. This will make it a decade since Downey and Jude Law (Captain Marvel) last appeared as Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. John Watson in 2011’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
The reason WB moved the film back is unclear, but it faces some pretty heavy competition in the 2021 holiday season. Not only does it come out a couple weeks after James Cameron’s Avatar 3, it will open against Hotel Transylvania 4, the Wicked adaptation and another Disney live-action remake. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes 3‘s original date of December 25th, 2020 has now been given to an untitled WB event film.
Sherlock Holmes 3 has been in development for quite some time with pretty constant delays due in part to finding the right script and Downey’s commitment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which may conclude with next month’s Avengers: Endgame. The current script has been written by Narcos creator Chris Brancato. Guy Ritchie (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)directed both Sherlock Holmes films with Downey and Law, though it is unknown if Ritchie will return for the third film.
Sherlock Holmes is based on the famous detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and Watson have appeared in countless forms of media, most recently in Ritchie’s films and the BBC’s modern day-set Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was loosely inspired by Doyle’s ‘The Final Problem’ which saw the detective battle and fall to his apparent death with his nemesis Professor Moriarty played by Jared Harris. Sherlock Holmes 3 will likely take some inspiration from ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’, the story which sees Sherlock return after faking his death.
