Sherlock producers Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and co-star Rupert Graves were at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday to drop big news about the upcoming special.
The news: Sherlock’s Victorian-era special will run in select movie theaters around the globe whenever it finally airs on TV! No other details were available because they still don’t know when the special is going to be airing, but fans were thrilled to hear that they’ll be able to watch it in theaters with fellow fans. It’s an event not unlike what happened with the Doctor Who anniversary special — another BBC hit.
Moffat also used today’s panel to reveal the very first clip from the Sherlock special. The scene depicts Baker Street at winter with Holmes and Watson arriving back at 221B. They get into a discussion with Mrs. Hudson about her role in the house. “I’m your landlady, not a plot device!” she yells back at them.
Unfortunately the clip doesn’t offer any clues about the special’s plot, and the panelists didn’t want to share additional hints either.
Panel highlights
There were several great moments during PBS’ Sherlock panel.
Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch open the show
Though they couldn’t be in San Diego, Sherlock co-stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, and Mark Gatiss sent a special video message for fans. The video started with Scott reading a 007 script (the actor is currently shooting the latest James Bond film) when he gets a call from Benedict Cumberbatch (his ringtone is the Sherlock theme), who wants to figure out an excuse for why they aren’t at Comic-Con.
The video was a little messy — it was clear that the guys didn’t film it together. Nonetheless, fans were excited to see the stars and were thrilled when Scott gave us a “Miss me?” at the end.
In the special, Sherlock is a detective without tech
Moffat explained that one of the thrills of shooting the Victorian-era special was being able to take away Sherlock’s iPhone. “It’s still the same sense of humor, it’s still very much the show you know… but it’s in the correct era, which was unbelievably thrilling,” he said.
He said he enjoyed it so much that he had to be talked out of keeping the show set in that era for series 4 and beyond.
There’s no Molly Hooper in the special
The show invented Molly for their modern day Sherlock, so when it came time to jump back to the Victorian era, they had to make things “unbelievably sexist” again — just like things were during that period. Moffat said one of the challenges was being honest to that era, which is why the new clip had the sexist scene where Sherlock and Watson say Mrs. Hudson belongs at home.
An update on ‘Sherlock’ series 4
It’s the topic we were all most curious about: What the heck is going on with Sherlock series 4? Moffat said he and Gatiss have spoken about the new episodes but they haven’t started writing them. At all. That said, they know exactly what stories they want to write. Moffat blamed all of his time spent writing Doctor Who for why he’s yet to start anything for Sherlock.
A ‘Sherlock’ / ‘Doctor Who’ crossover?
The idea of a Sherlock and Doctor Who crossover once again popped up during the Q&A portion of the panel. While Moffat admitted he doesn’t see one happening any time soon (as he’s said several times before), he did confess that he once penned a crossover while he was in college. He also said he recently drew a picture of Sherlock chasing a Dalek. Oh Moffat, stop teasing us…
Sherlock airs on PBS.
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