As the original release date of December 22, 2021 has passed, fans are anticipating the new 2022 release date. While the reasons for the delay are unknown, Director Fletcher had mentioned in a 2020 interview that the movie had been on the back burner due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beyond the duo of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively, the cast list is still a mystery. We’re not ruling out the return of Professor James Moriarty, but he was presumed dead at the end of the last film, and he was not in the script as of 2018.

Downey and his wife, producer Susan Downey, have mentioned that they want to use the third film to launch a “Sherlock Holmes” franchise on HBO and HBO Max. At the Fast Company Innovation Festival in October 2020, they said they hoped the third film’s plot would spin off “into some real gems of diversity and other times and elements,” as well as other characters.