Not every TV series can draw a Hall H level crowd on the final day of Comic-Con. But Sherlock just so happens to be one of those shows, and it had the added bonus of an expected guest: Sherlock Holmes himself, Benedict Cumberbatch!
Cumberbatch was in San Diego for yesterday’s Marvel movie panel to promote Doctor Strange, but he stuck around for his first ever appearance at a Comic-Con Sherlock panel. The last time there was a Sherlock panel here, both Cumberbatch and his co-star, Martin Freeman were shooting movies instead of making the trip out.
At the panel, showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss debuted the first trailer for Sherlock season 4, and it’s quite moody. As the man says, “it’s not a game anymore.”
Related: Toby Jones Will Menace ‘Sherlock’ Season 4
Despite recent rumors that Sherlock season 4 could be the end of the series, both Moffat and Gatiss insisted that was not the case. However, they stopped short of confirming a fifth season, even though fans asking questions from the audience joking tried to get Cumberbatch to commit for another season. Gatiss noted that the fourth season isn’t even done filming yet, and he will be shooting scenes with Cumberbatch later this week.
The showrunners just couldn’t resist an invitation to tease more of the new season. When asked to offer up a single word teaser, they chose three: “Thatcher,” “Smith” and “Sherrinford.” As man fans have pointed out, Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle nearly used Sherrinford as the name for his fictional detective before settling on Sherlock. There have been suggestions by later writers that Sherlock and Mycroft could have a third brother named Sherrinford Holmes. Our guess is that Sherlock could use that name as an alias, but we may have to wait until 2017 to get an answer.
What do you think the teaser words mean? Let us know in the comment section below!
