Sherlock Season 4 Finally Gets a Premiere Date, and You Only Had to Wait 3 Years!

Series will return to PBS' Masterpiece in 2017

By Jean Bentley Oct 26, 2016 7:00 PMTags
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Sherlock fans, your interminable wait is almost over!

PBS has finally announced a premiere date for season four of the fan-favorite series. Sherlock will return to Masterpiece on January 1, 2017—a year after the Sherlock special The Abominable Bride and three years since we last got a proper season of the production.

This date should not come as a shock, considering the special and two prior seasons have debuted on New Year's Day, but still: after three long, Sherlock-less years, we're finally getting new episodes!

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"Sherlock series four—here we go again! Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street, and it always feels like coming home," showrunner Steven Moffat said in a statement when production on season four commenced in April. "Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and terror and tragedy are looming. This is the story we've been telling from the beginning and it's about to reach its climax."

If you're worried that the skyrocketing celebrity status of both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman means that this could be the last season of the show, nothing is set in stone.

"I don't know how long we can keep it going. I'm personally willing but I'm hardly the main draw," Moffat told The Telegraph. "I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be."

Because of the nature of the show, taking a few years off between episodes is totally doable—which is why Moffat doesn't think this is the end.

"That's why I think it's unlikely that we've completely finished it. There would be nothing strange in stopping for a while," he said. "It could go on forever, coming back now and again."

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