SHERLOCK HOLMES / AVATAR Rematch Scheduled For 2020

Fans clamouring for a new installment in the Guy Ritchie / Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes series, rejoice: Warner Bros. today announced that a third film in the series will release on Christmas Day, 2020.

Downey Jr. will return as the title character, earning a likely gargantuan post-Avengers paycheque; Jude Law will also return as Watson, earning a slightly less-gargantuan post-Fantastic Beasts paycheque. Narcos co-creator and Hannibal executive producer Chris Brancato will write the screenplay; no director is attached. 

For those counting the days, that’s nine years after the previous film, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows hit cinemas. Curiously, a Christmas 2020 release date places the film up against Avatar 2, echoing the original film releasing straight after Avatar. But circumstances will be different this time: Avatar and its 3D format won’t be such a novelty, while Sing 2 and an as-yet untitled Disney live-action film will be releasing in the same window. That’s a competitive window.

Both previous films in the franchise earned over $500 million at the global box office, however, so there’s probably an audience willing to go for one more go-round with Downey Jr.’s dubiously-accented consulting detective. Are you among them? Who would have to direct the movie to convince you to see this? And will this movie be anywhere near as good as the Downey/Cumberbatch Sherlock joke that could still happen in Avengers 4, dammit?