I Was Surprised To Learn Enola Holmes 3 Is Going To Be Very Different From The First Two Millie Bobby Brown Movies (But The Reason Makes Sense)

(Image credit: Netflix)

For the past five years, the Enola Holmes movies have seen Millie Bobby Brown’s character get in and out of all kinds of trouble, solve all manner of crimes, and get under the skin of her older and more respected brother, Sherlock Holmes. At some point, the upcoming Netflix movie Enola Holmes 3 will see the young sleuth get to the bottom of yet another mystery; only this time, it sounds like things will be very different.

I recently sat down for a conversation with Enola Holmes 3’s director Philip Barantini to discuss his work on the Emmy Award-nominated Adolescence limited series after it became one of the biggest hits on the 2025 TV schedule. After discussing the ins and outs of the emotionally-devastating series, I asked the filmmaker what kind of changes he brought to the upcoming movie, to which he replied.

With [Enola Holmes 3], I'd said to the team, 'I'd like to make this movie slightly darker, slightly more grown-up than the first two.'

And no, this wasn’t because the experience of working on Adolescence, which was co-created by longtime Enola Holmes screenwriter Jack Thorne. Instead, it was something more practical and had to deal with the character and the Stranger Things Season 5 actress who’s leading the project. Barantini continued:

Because, you know, Enola's grown up, she's now 21, Millie's 21. So she's no longer a kid, really. She's an adult, and so I wanted to reflect that in the style and the tone of the movie. So, I think we've achieved that. And it's great. It's great. It's like a new chapter, essentially.

This isn’t the first time the franchise has taken a different direction, as Millie Bobby Brown previously explained to CinemaBlend that she wanted the character to evolve when preparing for Enola Holmes 2. The 2022 sequel focused more on Enola being an everyday detective, which was important to the actress and producer.

As far as where the case will take Brown’s titular private eye in Enola Holmes 3, that's anyone’s guess at this point. So far, the only thing we know about the movie is that it will follow the young heroine as she travels to Malta to solve a case, while also trying to balance her relationship with Louis Partridge’s Tewkesbury. However, with production having wrapped earlier in the summer, we should know a whole lot more sooner rather than later. The movie will also see the return of Henry Cavill, Himesh Patel, Helena Bonham Carter and Sharon Duncan-Brewster, who’ll all be reprising their roles from the previous movies.

While we’ll have to wait and see where Enola Holmes 3 falls on the 2026 movie schedule (I don’t think there’s any way this lands on the 2025 movie schedule), the first two movies are streaming for anyone with a Netflix subscription. The same goes for Adolescence, which everyone should watch if they haven’t already.

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Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. When he's not writing about movies or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three kids, telling his dogs to stop barking at the mailman, or chatting about professional wrestling to his wife. Writing gigs with school newspapers, multiple daily newspapers, and other varied job experiences led him to this point where he actually gets to write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time.

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