Yes! Sherlock Seasons 4 and 5 Are Planned Out

Good news for fans of Sherlock and Dr. Watson

By Chris Harnick Jan 09, 2014 4:58 PMTags
Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, SherlockBBC

Can't get enough of Sherlock? Good, neither can series cocreator Steven Moffat. At a BAFTA event, Moffat said he and cocreator Mark Gatiss have plotted seasons four and five of the hit detective series.

"Rather excitingly, Mark and I, for no particular reason, we just got out of the rain and sat at the top of the [Sherlock] production bus...and we just started plotting out what we could do in the future," Moffat told the audience, according to RadioTimes. "And we plotted out the whole of series four and five."

Moffat said they've come up with plenty of twists and turns. "The ideas we had that day, I thought were the best we've ever had," he said.

In October 2013, Moffat said stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman essentially ordered the fourth season.

"We had to inform the BBC that Martin and Benedict had commissioned a new series," Moffat said. "They signed themselves up. They both announced that they were carrying on—so that's good. Benedict, at some red carpet event somewhere, said he was carrying on forever. Martin, at another one, said, 'Yep, series four is happening.'"

Season three of Sherlock is set to premeire in the U.S. on Sunday, Jan. 19, on PBS at 10 p.m. after Downton Abbey.

"We love that Sherlock fans are so passionate and eager to see Season 3," Beth Hoppe, PBS chief programming executive and general manager of general audience programming, said in a statement when the date was announced. "The pairing of Downton Abbey and Sherlock in January offers a blockbuster night of British drama only on PBS stations."

The third season is currently airing in the U.K. and has broken its own ratings records. The premiere episode had more than 9 million viewers, more than any episode of the series so far.