A third movie in Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes series never quite came to fruition, but in its place, fans might get not one but two shows for HBO Max.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Downey and his production company Team Downey are currently developing two shows based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective. However, it’s unclear at this point if Downey would reprise his role from the Guy Ritchie-directed films, or if that’s even an option. It’s also unclear if the shows will be connected to each other, to the films, all of the above, or none of the above. Just that two shows are in the works.
In addition to Tony Stark himself, Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell will executive produce along with Lionel Wigram, who got a “story by” credit on the 2009 film. Gizmodo has reached out to HBO Max for potential comment or clarification and will update this story if or when we hear back.
No matter what happens with this project, it obviously makes a whole bunch of sense. Warner Bros. has been mining its most valuable intellectual property for streaming purposes for a while now, including Justice League, Harry Potter, The Batman, and Sex and the City. All of those properties have some show or spinoff either already on HBO Max, or in development. Sherlock Holmes or, to be more specific, this version of Sherlock Holmes, is obviously ripe with potential both from a story as well as a name recognition standpoint.
You’d have to imagine the only real danger is, what is too much Sherlock Holmes? Obviously, the character has been adapted in various mediums hundreds of times but the last two super-popular TV iterations — the CBS show Elementary and BBC version with Benedict Cumberbatch — ended in 2019 and 2017, respectively. Maybe now is the perfect time to bring Sherlock back again.