There's a lot of television we have been thankful for in 2016. While 2016 has been a great year for TV, 2017 is looking pretty swell, too. Hitting the schedule on the first day of the new year will be the fourth season of Sherlock, a set of TV episodes that we've been waiting for since the last series finished airing in 2014. This week, the BBC released the first images from the upcoming season, and some of them give us clues about the upcoming season. In fact, in one of them, Watson is seen holding the newest addition to his family: an adorable baby.
This shouldn't be huge news for those who have kept up with Sherlock over the years. During the Season 3 finale of the drama, we learned that Watson's wife, Mary, was pregnant with a baby. It now looks as if we'll be jumping ahead during Season 4, and the baby will already be around. It's hard to totally see Watson as a guy talking about burping and onesies, but that backpack carrier goes a long way to making Watson look like a man who cracks dad jokes.
We've known for a while that Sherlock Season 4 would feature Mary's pregnancy. When Season 4 was announced by the BBC, we learned that the new episodes would prominently feature Mary's pregnancy. The new image seems to indicate that the baby may already be around when the new episodes kick off, but that could very well be a shot from the third episode of the season, as well. Sherlock has never been super open about what new episodes will entail prior to release, so it's hard to tell exactly how this will play out.
In addition, the new BBC images give us a first look at Toby Jones, who is set to play a "legendary villain" during Season 4 named Culverton Smith. "Culverton Smith" is a character in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventures of the Dying Detective." Toby Jones is a well-known actor in the business, and has played characters within the Harry Potter franchise, on Wayward Pines and more. We can't wait to see how Sherlock takes on a brand new villain in the upcoming episodes.
"The Six Thatchers," "The Lying Detective," and "The Final Problem" will all hit the schedule starting with the "Thatchers" episode on January 1, 2017. The new episodes will air on PBS in the United States. Check out what else is headed to the schedule in 2016 with our midseason TV premiere schedule.
