It’s been eight years since the last episode of Sherlock, and Benedict Cumberbatch explains what it would take for him to return.
Before Benedict Cumberbatch was Doctor Strange, he was Sherlock Holmes. Although the actor is sticking with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sherlock fans have been wondering if the actor will ever return to 221B Baker Street. It’s been eight years since the last season of the series, and unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting a new season anytime soon.
When asked by Variety what it would take for him to reprise Sherlock, Cumberbatch joked, “A lot of money.” In all seriousness, the actor said any potential new season would have “to be better than it ever was. You leave them or yourselves wanting more. There’s always that itch to scratch, but I think it would have to be the superlative version of what we’ve already achieved.“
As much as fans would love to see Cumberbatch play the iconic sleuth once again (alongside Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson), the actor recalled he had warned fans from the beginning that Sherlock wasn’t something he was going to do forever. “I went, ‘Guys, I know you really like ‘Sherlock,’ but if you’re with me, I’m not going to always do the same thing,’” he said. “‘I’m not going to always be the Benedict that you expect. You might not like some of the stuff I do. I may be cute and cuddly to you at times, or ugly and untouchable. But I want to stretch myself and surprise myself and surprise you.’“
Cumberbatch did get a kick out of acting alongside fellow Sherlock Holmes actor Robert Downey Jr. in the Avengers movies. “We had a gas about being the two Sherlocks on set,” Cumberbatch said. “But there was some line of dialogue where someone turns to us and says, ‘No shit, Sherlock.’ Well, we took out all that meta stuff. We just said, ‘No, no, no. Better to leave that for the fan fiction.’“
As I mentioned above, Cumberbatch is content to play Doctor Strange in the MCU for a few more years. He recently teased that while he won’t be showing up in Avengers: Doomsday, he will show up “in a lot” of Avengers: Secret Wars.
