Watch ‘Sherlock’ Co-Creator Mark Gatiss Ponder Character Deaths, Fan Theories
After three long years, acclaimed crime-drama Sherlock will return for a fourth series on January 1st. To help satisfy fan cravings, co-creator Mark Gatiss (who also plays Sherlock Holmes’ older brother, Mycroft) teased possible mysteries and swatted away silly queries in the latest installment of Rolling Stone‘s “Fan Theory Exploder.”
The writer-actor stumbles a bit when asked if “Mary will be killed, leaving Sherlock and Watson to raise the child together.”
“Whether Mary dies or not – it’s a very faithful series, but we’ve also taken huge liberties,” Gatiss says. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll do what [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle] did just because he did it. So stay tuned.”
While Gatiss definitively strikes down the idea of a Christmas special set in a “dystopian future London, starring a weary Sherlock and his trusty A.I., Watson,” he suggests a depressing alternative: “As we are actually living now in a dystopian future, maybe we’ll just do a documentary. We’ll just follow each other around, just crying at the fact that we’re living in the plot of The Man in the High Castle.”
Elsewhere, Gatiss plays coy with the theory that Toby Jones’ villain, Culverton Smith, turns out to be the “third Holmes brother,” and he reveals a sheepish grin when asked if “Mycroft will be killed, sending Sherlock into a downward spiral.”
“This is my favorite question,” he says, before a lengthy pause. “Well, wait and see.”