Sherlock fans: brace yourself. Benedict Cumberbatch just hinted the BBC detective drama could be reaching its natural end.
Speaking to GQ magazine about the upcoming series of the show, Cumberbatch said it felt “complete” and like “the end of an era”.
“It might be the end of an era," he said. "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."
An interesting statement by itself, but there’s more to think about here. Back in July, Amanda Abbington (who plays Mary Watson) also hinted she was leaving the show for good. The actress tweeted that the end of series four marked her “golden wrap” – a phrase traditionally used when a cast member leaves the show for the final time.
Yes, her “golden wrap” could just be word play on the golden ring in the photo, but now it makes us wonder: could Sherlock itself be ending after four series?
There's some comfort in noting Sherlock showrunner Steve Moffat has previously said he’s figured out plotlines for series four and five of the show. It’s news Moffat announced all the way back in 2014, but it still gives us hope that we’ll get a fifth series.
Regardless, we're now preparing ourselves for a decisive finale in Sherlock series four.
Sherlock series 4 will air in early 2017
