Benedict Cumberbatch on Sherlock S4 Being Its Last: “The End of An Era”

As if it isn’t bad enough that there aren’t nearly enough episodes of Sherlock per season, or that we have to wait way too long between seasons, word from Benedict Cumberbatch, A.K.A. Sherlock himself, is that Season 4 may be its last.

While the BBC hasn’t made any sort of formal announcement, Steven Moffat started the “Season 4 might be our last” talk back in July in an interview with The Telegraph, saying “I don’t know how long we can keep it going. I’m personally willing but I’m hardly the main draw. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be.”

Now, in an interview with British GQ, Cumberbatch talks about the possibility of Season 4 being the last season of Sherlock from a story perspective, in addition to it being about actors wanting to free themselves up to do other things:

“It might be the end of an era. It feels like the end of an era, to be honest. It goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately. We never say never on the show. I’d love to revisit it, I’d love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that, but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we’ve made something very complete as it is, so I think we’ll just wait and see. The idea of never playing him again is really galling.”

But as I said up top, Sherlock fans are used to there being really long waits between installments, and as Cumberbatch doesn’t seem to like thinking that he’ll never play Sherlock again. So, there’s always the possibility of more…even if we see it less often. Says Cumberbatch,  “I think it’s unlikely that we’ve completely finished it. There would be nothing strange in stopping for a while. It could go on forever, coming back now and again.”

Do you think that Season 4, which we can expect in early 2017, will be the last season of Sherlock? Let’s talk Sherlock in the comments below!

(via Nerdist, image via BBC)

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