Long waits between seasons are nothing new for fans of anything Steven Moffat, but if they’re hoping for more Sherlock before the start of the next decade, they’re going to be disappointed.
In an interview with the Radio Times, Moffat and his Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss say new episodes aren’t outside the realm of possibility—but they are right up there at the border. “Nobody has ever closed the door on Sherlock – we just say the same thing all the time and it gets quoted different ways,” Moffat said at a recent event where cast and creators were gathered to gaze upon some collected souvenir covers inspired by the show. He continued, “We haven’t got an immediate plan, but I would remain surprised, given the collective enthusiasm we have for it, if we didn’t do it again.”
But don’t even think about asking Moffat for any kind of deadline: “When, I don’t know,” the Doctor Who alum said. “I think maybe the time for a longer gap is upon us, I don’t know. A longer gap? They’re always long gaps!” That’s when Gatiss chimed in to note that they’re currently working on a Dracula adaptation that “is going to take two years at least.” and obviously they’re “not going to do Sherlock whilst we’re doing Dracula. So it’s not going to happen in the immediate future.” They haven’t given up on their other BBC series—“Never say never”—but Gatiss admits they don’t have any ideas for new installments right now anyway.
If your heart hasn’t already been tugged this way and that, Moffat added “I could see us making more Sherlocks. I could see us making Sherlocks way in the future.” After all, it’s “not the kind of show that has to come back all the time. It can revisit. Every time Sherlock comes back, it’s a reunion show.”
Moffat and Gatiss aren’t the only ones with projects lined up that could delay the start of a new season of mystery solving and grandstanding. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have both joined the MCU, after all. Cumberbatch is also starring in the limited series Patrick Melrose, while Freeman, who’s now got two seasons of StartUp in his list of credits, can soon be seen in Black Panther.