‘Sherlock’ season 4 may be the last; Benedict Cumberbatch says he is ready to move on

“Sherlock” season 4 may be the last one, titular star Benedict Cumberbatch said. The British actor, who will be seen next in “Doctor Strange,” has admitted everyone is ready to move on.

While the 40-year-old actor said that he would love to continue playing the high-functioning sociopath on TV, it may be time to leave. After all, “Sherlock” has been around since 2010, just not all the time.

“It might be the end of an era. It feels like the end of an era, to be honest,” he told British GQ magazine. “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.

“The idea of never playing him again is really galling.”

He isn’t the only one who thinks the fourth season may be the last one. Series co-creator Steven Moffat has previously said that Cumberbatch’s rigid schedule may not permit another “Sherlock” production in the future.

As both Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who plays John Watson in the show, are already internationally famous celebrities, it’s becoming more difficult to find time to film the series. They are apparently only doing it because they want to.

“We do have two film stars in the program. They haven’t needed to do these jobs for a very long time. They’re coming because they want to,” Moffat told the Telegraph.

‘Sherlock’ series 4 could be the last; Steven Moffat says Benedict Cumberbatch too famous and busy for a 5th series

Cumberbatch’s Sherlock has recently placed third in Digital Spy’s best TV character of the 21^st century poll, behind the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) from “Doctor Who” and Castiel (Misha Collins) from “Supernatural.” While Sherlock’s 13,000 votes are far behind the Time Lord’s (35,000) and the angel’s (32,000) count, it is still an impressive feat for a character who has so far only been on television for 10 episodes.

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“Sherlock” season 4 will premiere in January.

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