Sherlock Holmes is one of those rare characters who is both famous and in the public domain, meaning that anyone can use the brilliant detective in their project. So you have Benedict Cumberbatch playing him over on Sherlock for the BBC, Henry Cavill taking up the mantle in Enola Holmes on Netflix, and Robert Downey Jr. playing him in a pair of movies from Warner Bros.
There’s a third Downey Jr. Sherlock movie on the way, and WarnerMedia wants to capitalize. According to Deadline, they’re developing not one but two spinoffs based on the Downey Jr. movies…although they will revolve around neither Downey Jr.’s Sherlock nor Jude Law’s John Watson. Instead, they’ll be about “characters that have not been introduced yet.”
That seems a little odd; why use the Sherlock Holmes property if you’re not going to use characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories? Well, I’m sure WarnerMedia knows what it’s money…I mean what it’s doing.
A Killing Eve prequel series is in development
As long as we’re talking about spinoffs, BBC American and AMC Networks are developing a more traditional one based on Killing Eve, the espionage drama currently in its fourth and final season. This one will be a prequel about MI6 spymaster Carolyn Mertens, played by Fiona Shaw on the original show. The spinoff, which hasn’t been greenlit yet, would focus on her younger days, probably when she was a spy in the Soviet Union.
The two-part series finale of Killing Eve airs this Sunday.
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h/t The A.V. Club