Because Robert Downey Jr. has been so busy playing Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (along with detours for The Judge and Chef), the actor hasn't been able to revisit the other popular character from the printed page he's breathed life into: Sherlock Holmes. The last time we saw Downey playing Arthur Conan Doyle's astute detective was in 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but over the last few years there's been movement to get Sherlock Holmes 3 off the ground. Now it's official that Warner Bros does indeed plan to deliver this threequel to the masses, as the studio has scheduled it for Christmas Day, 2020.
Warner Bros made it official today that Sherlock Holmes will hit theaters on December 25, 2020, nine years after A Game of Shadows dropped. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law will reprise Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, respectively, but as THR reports, there is no director attached yet, meaning Guy Ritchie may not be back for Round 3. Written by Narcos' Chris Brancato, Sherlock Holmes 3 will compete against Sing 2 that opening weekend, and both movies arrive a week after Avatar 2, a follow-up that will have taken even longer to arrive than Sherlock Holmes 3.
The last time we saw Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes in A Game of Shadows, he'd tossed both himself and his arch-nemesis, Dr. James Moriarty, into the Reichenbach Falls, echoing what happened in Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, The Final Problem. As far as we know, Moriarty perished from the fall, but in the movie's final minutes, John Watson suspected that his friend might still be alive when he received a package a breathing device that Mycroft Holmes built that Sherlock took a liking to. Watson's suspicions were correct, as Sherlock had camouflaged himself within Watson's office, and once the good doctor left, the detective went to the typewriter where Watson was writing his memoirs and added a question mark to the words "The End." Since almost a decade will have passed for us since by the time Sherlock Holmes 3 comes out, no doubt a fair amount of time will also have passed when Sherlock and Watson officially reunite.
In the time since A Game of Shadows came out, the BBC Sherlock series released three more seasons, and CBS is still running Elementary, a fellow modern day adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes mythology. Still, it will be nice to have a more traditional Sherlock Holmes adventure unfold on screen. And with Robert Downey Jr. seemingly wrapping up his time as Tony Stark, that opens the door for him to take on Sherlock Holmes 3 and other projects, like The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on how Sherlock Holmes 3 is progressing. In the meantime, you can currently catch Robert Downey Jr. reprising Tony Stark in Avengers: Infinity War, and don't forget to look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what other movies come out this year.
