Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies have been a fun ride. But do we need a third one? Not necessarily. As enjoyable as Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have been together, we have plenty of other options when seeking our Sherlock fix (both on television and in the movie theaters), and Downey’s plenty busy playing Tony Stark in the MCU. But Law recently floated a very interesting idea for Sherlock Holmes 3… even if his director kind of hates it.
Jude Law was appearing as a guest on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, and talked about his pitch for Sherlock Holmes 3. It involves time travel. Yes, time travel. Law seemed surprised that host Josh Horowitz had heard the idea, and even defended the concept, explaining:
I still think it’s a good idea! I don’t want to say, ‘Yeah it’s true,’ and then it kind of blows the idea out of the water. But I guess, if I’m being honest, I think both Robert [Downey Jr.] and Guy [Ritchie] kind of went… what? But I kind of thought… I can’t remember. I thought that was in top secret. I’m amazed that someone has leaked that. Yeah, I thought [we could] sort of combine H.G. Wells and Sherlock Holmes. And then Downey topped it by going, ‘Yeah, and the time travel machine is… it’s something you eat.’ I wonder what he’s referring to there? I don’t know. You eat it and you go, ‘Oh my God, I’m in 2024!’"
Funny drug references aside, I think this is a feasible way to build on the current Sherlock Holmes franchise – by removing them from their comfortable time period. In fact, the BBC version of the classic characters is about to send contemporary portrayals Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman back to the Victorian era for a Christmas special. Law’s idea would reverse the time stream and send he and RDJ into the future. Who wouldn’t want to watch that?
Well, Guy Ritchie, for starters, who appeared on a later episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast and addressed the time travel idea, stating:
Jude always had good ideas, surprisingly good, and came up with good lines too. But the time travel one was not the zenith of his ideas."
That doesn’t mean that Sherlock Holmes 3 is dead. Not by any means. It just means that if and when a sequel happens, we’ll likely see Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) in their requisite period garb. But now I want to hear the rest of Law’s pitch. Don’t you?
