What Happened To Irene Adler? Sherlock's Creator Speaks

Sherlock character Irene Adler may have only featured prominently in one episode of the hit series, but she has been popular enough with fans that they’ve been clamoring for more every since. At the Sherlock Comic-Con panel this year, in fact, Irene Adler was brought up and creator Steven Moffat revealed he had written a follow-up story taking place in the time directly after Sherlock and Ms. Adler left off.

If you’ll remember, when last we heard of Irene Adler, she was pronounced dead by Mycroft Holmes. Yet, when last we saw her, she was (assumedly) being saved from certain death by none other than Sherlock Holmes. Now, Moffatt says he wrote a version of the events in which immediately after Sherlock saves Irene--hacking a bunch of people up in the process of what is “essentially a domestic dispute"--she gets mad at him and they part ways.

She ends up stealing all his clothes and running off.

While that wild sequence of events has not lived to see the light of day in the time since, it’s still a lovely idea for fans of the series to cling to.

To be honest, I think they never saw each other again, to tell the truth. But they both smile, once a day, whenever they think of each other.

Moffat is a talker and has a lot of interesting things to say, but there’s something so poignant and perfect in that last comment that it pretty well wraps up the Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes showmance for me. It’s a good thing, too, because the executive producer stated, “I don’t know,” when asked about the potential for Irene Adler to appear on the show ever again. And since we already know what the next episode will be about, it’s doubtful another Adler appearance will happen soon, if it happens at all.

Sherlock fans have been gearing up for the upcoming special for quite some time now. A while ago, news broke that the special would be a throwback piece set in the Victorian era, like the traditional Sherlock Holmes. We don’t know exactly when the special will be hitting the schedule, but it has already been filmed, and today, PBS even released a brand new, extremely fun scene from the event.

We’ll let you know as soon as Sherlock returns to the schedule. In the meantime, you can take a look at what else is coming up this summer, here.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.