Good news for fans of Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), the third installment starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law now has an officially confirmed release date of December 25, 2020.

Guy Ritchie directed the first two films in the underrated Warners franchise, but no director is currently attached for part 3. The script comes from Chris Brancato, writer for critically acclaimed series Narcos and Hannibal.

Unfortunately, Ritchie’s last two efforts at Warner Brothers, The Man from UNCLE and King Arthur, disappointed both the critics and the punters – hardly surprising, since they were both terrible – so it’s entirely possible the Ritchie-Warners partnership has seen better days.

Ritchie is currently working on Disney’s live-action Aladdin remake, which is slated to arrive in theaters on May 24, next year. That leaves him plenty of time to come back on board for the as-yet untitled Holmes sequel if that’s what he and the studio agree on.

Jared Harris as Professor Moriarty made A Game of Shadows into an epic, quite frankly

A Game of Shadows went on to earn $186.8M domestically and $545.4M at the worldwide box office. The first film earned slightly more domestically, with $209M at the box office, but slightly less overseas with $524M worldwide. Interestingly, due to Warner Brothers’ fast-tracking of the sequel, Ritchie was forced to drop out of Lobo, while Robert Downey, Jr was forced to drop out of Cowboys & Aliens (2011). How much better would that have been without Daniel Craig’s lame American accent attempt.

It’s been some time since we last had an update on this project…and of course an absolute age since the last installment. It will have some pretty stiff competition at the Christmas box office in 2020 – James Cameron’s much-anticipated  Avatar sequel, which has taken even longer to get made than this Sherlock sequel, is arriving on December 18, 2020.

Related stories
• Sherlock Holmes gets pulpy, pocket-sized releases from SelfMadeHero
• Exclusive Interview With Sherlock’s Louise Brealey
• Sherlock 4.03 “The Final Problem” photo gallery
• Sherlock season 4 image gallery
• Jude Law lands Captain Marvel lead male role