Sherlock has a history of being jaw-dropping and tragic enough, so it's pretty terrifying to hear that the upcoming fourth season of the series — which is set to begin filming next year for a 2016 air date — is going to be even more tragic than before. Seriously, that was exactly the word that co-creator and series star Mark Gatiss used to describe season 4 of Sherlock : "Tragic."
During an interview with the Radio Times recently to discuss the upcoming season, Gatiss revealed that the series "has a lot of places to go" in the new episodes, as well as a ton of surprises in store. "You can always expect tragedy as well as adventure, that’s just how it goes," he said.
Tragedy? Ugh. That means death, doesn't it? And he's not even giving a semblance of a hint as to who may or may not be perishing, which is just cruel considering that the new season won't be airing until 2016. THIS SHOW WILL KILL US ALL.
Oh, and, for those of you who are already flipping through your copies of Sherlock Holmes stories that were originally written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1880s, don't bother: Gatiss also added that just because it happens in the books doesn't mean it'll happen in the show, so there's really no telling what'll happen. "Just because it’s in the stories doesn’t mean it’ll happen in the series because there’s an awful lot of changes and an awful lot of places to go and things to do," he said. "It should be clear by now that while, of course, Doyle is our absolute god, we have gone quite a long way away as well — we’ve introduced Sherlock and Mycroft’s parents [for instance], I don’t think they’ve ever been seen in any adaptation — so there are lots of surprises to come."
Despite this fact, that hasn't stopped the stars of the series from beginning to theorize what will happen to fulfill this so-called prophecy of tragedy in season 4. During an interview recently with The Telegraph , Martin Freeman — who portrays Watson, of course — stated that he believes his his on-screen wife Mary Watson (portrayed by his off-screen wife, Amanda Abbington) will meet her demise because it happened in the books. "We generally follow the trajectory of what Conan Doyle did," he said. "So [John] gets married, and then Mary dies – so at some point presumably she’ll die."
Hey, as long as that tragedy doesn't involve Watson dying or Sherlock dying — again — I think the fandom can handle it, right? I mean...we already got through Sherlock fake-dying...we can get through anything.
