Robert Downey Jr. wants to create a Sherlock Holmes universe

Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan Downey, want to create a Marvel-style Sherlock Holmes universe. Good idea, bad idea?

Ever since Benedict Cumberbatch stepped into the role of Sherlock Holmes, it’s been hard to imagine anyone else in the part…even if they did it before him.

Over a decade ago, Robert Downey Jr. — Ironman himself — gave it a go when he starred in Guy Ritchie’s take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. It’s been years since I watched the Robert Downey Jr. version, but I remember being bored and uninterested. And then Cumberbatch took on the role in BBC’s Sherlock and I never looked back.

But now that the BBC Sherlock is over, maybe Downey Jr. can step back in. In fact, as he revealed on a panel at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, he and wife Susan Downey want to do a lot more than just make another movie:

"At this point, we really feel that there is not a mystery-verse built out anywhere, and Conan Doyle is the definitive voice in that arena, I think, to this day. So to me, why do a third movie if you’re not going to be able to spin off into some real gems of diversity and other times and elements?"

Essentially, it sounds like Downey Jr. wants to take a page from the Marvel playbook and make a Sherlock Holmes universe. “We think there’s an opportunity to build it out more,” said Susan, who is a producer. “Spin-off characters from a third movie, to see what’s going on in the television landscape, to see what Warner Media is starting to build out, things with HBO and HBO Max.”

"I do think that the decade of tutelage and observation, what we were both able to have with Marvel, watching them build out and see all the opportunities, was invaluable. It was like a master class. And they really did know what they were doing and they had this tight-knit group of people from [the] jump locked into a vision that enables them to broaden [the comics into 23 hit movies]."

Robert and Downey recently teamed up to produce another detective show: Perry Mason on HBO. It’s pretty solid, so I can’t preemptively say that a Sherlock-verse from them is a terrible idea, even if I’m Team Cumberbatch all the way.

There is a third Sherlock Holmes movie slated to release in December 2021, with Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprising their roles as Holmes and Watson. Beyond that, we’re not sure what’ll happen.

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h/t Collider