All we know for sure about Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes 3 is that we won’t be seeing it for a while. It’s already been ten years since A Game of Shadows, and the next outing for the legendary sleuth has become a recurring victim of circumstance and scheduling conflicts, although the leading man has yet to officially commit to his next onscreen role after the disastrous Dolittle.
Director Dexter Fletcher has already admitted that the project has been placed on the back burner, due to the logistical nightmares and increased costs that come with mounting a globetrotting period-set blockbuster in the midst of a global pandemic. In the interim, though, the filmmaker has signed on to helm Universal’s blackly comic Dracula spinoff Renfield and the upcoming Paramount+ series about the making of The Godfather.
Jude Law, meanwhile, is set to move straight from Fantastic Beasts 3‘s Dumbledore into playing Captain Hook in Disney’s live-action remake Peter Pan & Wendy, so the stars on Sherlock Holmes 3 won’t be aligning for some time. However, insider Daniel Richtman reports that Downey Jr. wants the threequel to be wilder and crazier than the previous two outings, which weren’t exactly small scale, contained or particularly rooted in realism to begin with.
The anachronistic technology and steampunk influences have been a key part in the franchise so far, but the most important aspect of Sherlock Holmes 3 should be getting Hans Zimmer back on board to craft another phenomenal score. The last we heard, Narcos creator Chris Brancato had been tasked with writing the script, but that was over two years ago, so it’s impossible to tell how things are shaping up behind the scenes given the severe lack of movement.