In February, Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss indicated that their beloved BBC series Sherlock could return for a new season at some point, but it would probably take a few years for them to come up with a worthy story idea and for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s increasingly busy schedules to open. There’s also the fact that Moffat and Gatiss are now working on Dracula show, but Sherlock and Watson won’t be back for more adventures any time soon. No matter how long it takes, though, Martin Freeman is in no rush to return to the series.
Speaking with The Telegraph (via Entertainment Weekly), Freeman says that fan expectations are so high for anything Sherlock-related that it’s “not fun anymore.” The “reception” of the show’s fourth season in particular seemed disappointing to Freeman, who says it was “kind of impossible” to live up to what everyone wanted to see. He couldn’t enjoy the experience after a while, saying it became less fun when the general attitude among fans was “you better fucking do this, otherwise you’re a c***.” (We don’t know which specific c-word Freeman used.)
“Sherlock became the animal that it became immediately,” Freeman adds, noting that there was a lot of pressure to maintain that “high quality” for the rest of its run—which may explain why it took seven years to film four seasons.