Despite hardly being prolific since he drew his legendary Marvel Cinematic Universe tenure to an end when Iron Man made the ultimate sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, Robert Downey Jr. finally appears to be preparing to once more become a regular presence on our screens.
Since bowing out of his career-defining role with grace, the actor has only appeared in Dolittle, which suffered the ignominy of becoming one of the biggest box office bombs of all-time. However, with a multi-faceted turn in HBO’s The Sympathizer and a potential awards-friendly supporting turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to come, RDJ could be back to firing on all cylinders.
Not even that, but Sherlock Holmes 3 might even end up escaping from development hell at long last, after the star’s wife and producing partner Susan Downey confirmed to The Wrap that the long-awaited threequel is now a “priority” for the leading man.
“Well, here’s what I can tell you. And Amanda can attest to this. Prior to this, we had lunch together with Robert, the three of us. And it was a very specific topic of conversation,” Downey said. “So yes, it is in the hopper. We’re going to do it when it’s right, with the right people, but it is a priority for the company and a priority for Robert.”
It’s been a dozen years since A Game of Shadows was released, but has too much time passed for the billion-dollar franchise to generate enough buzz and hype? We’ve seen plenty of delayed sequels fail to live up to expectations, and without the MCU to fall back on while the shadow of Dolittle looms in the background, there are no guarantees Sherlock Holmes 3 would even hit big.