Is The New Bond Film Bad News For 'Sherlock'?

After months and months of anticipation, all your prayers have been answered. At an event in England Thursday morning, the title of the new James Bond film was revealed, not to mention the cast, the release date, and, most important of all, the kind of car that the titular spy would be driving. All should be seemingly well, right? Well, it would be if Sherlock star Andrew Scott wasn't joining the Spectre cast. Sherlock fans will recognize Scott immediately as the deliciously evil, deliciously hammy — spoilers ahead — recently mysteriously resurrected Jim Moriarty. Since filming for the Sherlock special doesn't even begin until January 2015, the question now becomes: is Scott's role in Spectre going to delay Sherlock Season 4?

From the start, I want to say no. After all, Martin Freeman has been filming The Hobbit movies and Benedict Cumberbatch has had time to film The Imitation Game — and they play the two male leads on Sherlock, so obviously their film careers have no affect on their ability to show up for filming. However, Spectre doesn't come out until November 2015, with the fourth season of Sherlock to film "later in the year" — so Scott's schedule is going to be pretty tight here.

At the end of Season 3, Sherlock was about to be exiled from England when he was immediately called back because Moriarty had hacked all of the television screens to announce his triumphant and inexplicable return, despite having shot himself in the head at the end of Season 2. From that, it should be assumed that Season 4 is going to be all Moriarty all the time — at least in so far as the actual threat that Sherlock Holmes will be dealing with for the three-episode run. However, that's quite likely why Scott has time to film Spectre around his Sherlock schedule.

As we remember from Season 1, Moriarty was a criminal mastermind rather than a petty criminal — and as we remember from Season 3, everyone knows he is a real criminal now and not just someone that Sherlock made up to look cool. Thus, it's obvious that Moriarty will spend most of Season 4 in hiding, forcing Sherlock and John to track him down in order to stop whatever he's planning for revenge (or for fun). After all, even if Moriarty is really back and somehow not dead, he can't just walk around in broad daylight without getting arrested anymore. Especially now that he's ensured that everyone knows what he looks like.

So, worry not, Sherlock fans. The only thing we have to be upset about with regards to Season 4 is the fact that it probably won't be out until 2016 at the earliest. Until then, we should be glad that we can catch all our favorite Sherlock stars in American films. 2014 — 2015 is a great series of years to be a Sherlock fan, it seems.

Image: Robert Viglasky/Hartswood Films 2013 for MASTERPIECE; scaredywolf (2)/Tumblr