‘Sherlock’ Season 4 Air Date, News & Update: Benedict Cumberbatch Says Goodbye To BBC Series With S4?

"Sherlock Season 4 from the BBC will break hearts in more ways than one as Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes) says S4 completes the series. To be sure co-producers and co-writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (Mycroft Holmes) lent hope for "Sherlock Season 5" and further.

However, "Sherlock Season 4" births an uncertain future with star Benedict Cumberbatch ready to say goodbye. "Sherlock" fans now, too, face a dark future.

In the past, Collider quoted Benedict Cumberbatch in highlighting that "Sherlock" by the BBC should be allowed an organic ending. While Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss did not seem as willing to let go, Benedict Cumberbatch pointed out that "Sherlock" should be protected from overstaying its run.

Radio Times cites an interview with GQ magazine where Benedict Cumberbatch said "Sherlock Season 4" feels like an ending. According to Benedict Cumberbatch, "Sherlock Season 4" takes the arc for Holmes and John Watson (Martin Freeman) into a conclusion that will be difficult to follow.

Interestingly, while Benedict Cumberbatch says this of the "Sherlock Season 4" plot, the actor who modernized Holmes admitted that he has other things to do. "I'd love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that, but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we've made something very complete as it is, so I think we'll just wait and see," Benedict Cumberbatch said of future "Sherlock" commitments.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss may have been ready with a new arc at "Sherlock Season 5." However, Benedict Cumberbatch does not sound as immediately, or at all, ready for more after "Sherlock Season 4" wraps.

On the bright side, if "Sherlock Season 4" does deliver the arc completion that Benedict Cumberbatch, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss promised, the end of this era should not be too unsettling. At the very least, "Sherlock" fans would have had a full run of the arc.

Parent Herald posed the question of whether "Sherlock" could continue, casting a Benedict Cumberbatch replacement as Holmes. However, "Sherlock" fans are not happy with the idea of a replacement Holmes, and rightly so.

Were Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss to bring their "Sherlock Season 5" idea into fruition, the BBC series would have to start fresh. Perhaps, the BBC series could return with an all new cast and even an all new title.

More immediately, the BBC is set to air the "Sherlock Season 4" premiere on New Year's Day in 2017. Would you support a reboot of "Sherlock?"