Sherlock series 3 may be well over a year away, but co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have had the whole thing planned for a while now. The latter has now teased fans with a small hint at to what we expect from 3×01! This post contains spoilers.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Gatiss (who also wrote “The Great Game” and “The Hounds of Baskerville” as well as playing Holmes’s brother, Mycroft) revealed that Sherlock will surprise John Watson with the revelation of his survival as in “The Empty House.” However, unlike Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story which brought the sleuth back from the dead, Watson will not be too pleased to see him.

“There’s certain things about “The Adventure Of The Empty House” which feel set in stone because that’s how Sherlock comes back,” the writer/actor said. “but at the same time we feel free to invent and to introduce new stuff to it.” This approach is something that fans of the original stories will be used to – the creative team similarly embellished the character of Irene Adler, and almost completely changed the plot of “The Final Problem” to create the second series finale.

“I always found it a little unlikely that Dr Watson’s only reaction was to faint for instance – as supposed to possibly a stream of terrible swear words.”

So we could well be seeing an angrier, wounded John than traditionalists could have been expecting. This writer would like to see Martin Freeman’s Watson punch the detective, especially after their fisticuffs in 2×01.

Do you think a barrage of foul language is a more realistic reaction to the news that your best friend faked their own death?