Benedict Cumberbatch on new Sherlock season: “Without a doubt” the darkest

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The key to any good story is its villain. Batman would be a horrible comic series if his main villain was a sexually confused, middle-aged man obsessed with My Little Pony who only drinks old cans of Pitch Black Mountain Dew. It’s impossible for your story to be 100 percent bad as long as you have a great villain. STAR WARS, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, DARK KNIGHT, even DJANGO UNCHAINED are all that much more riveting thanks to their villain.

Luckily, the men behind SHERLOCK have taken that to heart, assuring fans the newest season of the show will be the darkest and probably most interesting yet—all thanks to their villain—played by Toby Jones. Collider sat down with star Benedict Cumberbatch and series creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss to talk to them about the new season, and asked about rumors that this was the darkest season yet:

Cumberbatch:

Without a doubt.”

You’re talking about the end of the universe darkness. You can’t see in front of you and would walk into everything dark.”

Moffat:

We turned the lights off to save money, so you can’t really see it. It’s the same show. Hopefully, there are lots of laughs and lots of great personal stuff, but it is explicitly a darker season. You’ll have to wait and see.”

And as for that dastardly Toby Jones villain?

Moffat:

He’s completely different. It’s a completely different character. He’s the darkest villain we’ve had. There was always something charming and engaging about Moriarty. There was something fascinating and actually amoral, rather than immoral, about Charles Augustus Magnussen. This guy is the purest evil. Sherlock is actually appalled by him. He’s the most evil villain we’ve had. I don’t think that when you see it, you will disagree. He’s horrific.”

Gatiss:

We made our Moriarty very different to Doyle’s. He’s Irish, and he brings all his charm, his twinkle and his humor to it while he’s also terrifying. Magnussen was a very blank, chilling business man. He doesn’t see what he’s doing as evil. Toby is doing something very interesting. She’s an avuncular, funny seeming man with terrible teeth. We’ve given him terrible teeth, which are symbolic of the rot inside him. It’s a great complex, shaded character. You’re not quite sure what the relationship is with him.”

SHERLOCK is one of the great modern shows, a key reason being because Gatiss and Moffat know exactly how to make their characters engaging, and then hire too-talented-for-their-own-good actors—like Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, etc.—to bring them to life. With that in mind, I have no doubt Jones is going to knock whatever dark, disturbing villain they’re having him play out of the park, ensuring a truly gripping season of SHERLOCK is awaiting us.

The new season of SHERLOCK comes out in next year.