Sherlock Creator: Benedict Cumberbatch "Irreplaceable" as Lead

[Alex Co]

Sherlock Creator: Benedict Cumberbatch "Irreplaceable" as Lead

"If Benedict went under a bus tomorrow it would be the end of the show," says Sherlock creator Mark Gatiss.

Mark Gatiss, creator of the hit BBC show Sherlock, has deemed Benedict Cumberbatch "irreplaceable" in the lead titular role. Speaking to The Mirror [http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/sherlock-mark-gatiss-says-benedict-3218832], Gatiss even goes as far as to claim, "If Benedict went under a bus tomorrow it would be the end of the show. Benedict and Martin are our stars." Martin, of course, refers to Martin Freeman, the actor who plays Watson and is one half of the dynamic duo of the TV series. Gatiss also adds that while people want more episodes of Sherlock than three in an entire year, that's all they could do right now since the two lead actors' success in Hollywood has left them in a bind when it comes to scheduling. "We do three episodes a year and although people want more that's all we can do. They are both so famous now it's increasingly difficult to get them," comments Gatiss.

"Sherlock made Benedict a star and I know he is eternally grateful to the show, he wants to do more," the show creator mentions, and adds, "Martin is similar too as he is in The Hobbit and he's doing a new show in Canada with Billy Bob Thornton, a TV version of Fargo." However, even with the duo's Hollywood success, Gatiss reiterates that both leads want to continue with the hit show and yes, they will return for the fourth season -- though that's still without a set date yet. "They are both major stars but they both want to carry on. We just have to try and make the days work, that's all," he finishes.

Cumberbatch was most recently seen in the Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave, while Freeman will star once again as Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's concluding chapter to The Hobbit trilogy, There and Back Again, set to hit theaters later this year.

As a big fan of Sherlock, I don't think I'd even want the series to continue without the two original actors playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. But that might just be me. Would you be OK if the two roles were recast if for some reason Cumberbatch and Freeman couldn't continue doing it? Or would it be better they stop the series altogether than do that?

Source: DigitalSpy [http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/sherlock-mark-gatiss-says-benedict-3218832]


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[Queen Michael]

He is as irreplaceable as Jesus.

Okay, kind of a bad example, because there was that time that Jesus had a nasty cold and had Peter fill in for him, and Peter-as-Jesus performed the miracle of finding a quarter in Lazarus' ear, but still.

 

[weirdee]

He is as irreplaceable as Jesus.

Okay, kind of a bad example, because there was that time that Jesus had a nasty cold and had Peter fill in for him, and Peter-as-Jesus performed the miracle of finding a quarter in Lazarus' ear, but still.

it was less impressive since it took him three days to do it, and many people suspected that he just lost the quarter in there to begin with

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Yes, I suspect that's completely true. I'd say the same could be true of Freeman, though, let's not forget him.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

I do however like the sound of a TV version of Fargo. Or at least it might be fun. I'll keep an eye out for that.

 

[FalloutJack]

Sherlock is priceless. It may be a modern-day Holmes - which is generally odd - but they have indeed captured the proper essences of the characters. They have also, in a certain tasteful way, added humor to the table. If you can pull that off AND be interesting in the way Sir ACD created it, you have a winner.

 

[JediMB]

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

Yeah, basically Sherlock's popularity stems from its cool presentation (magic cellphone powers!) and Cumberbatch's cuteness. I haven't watched the most recent season, though, since I'd already realized how dumb the show's writing was a lot of the time. If they didn't resort to seriously outdated cultural stereotypes, they simply had Mr. Holmes making an ass out of himself by making assumptions and throwing around accusations before having any actual proof.

Meanwhile, Elementary has been thoroughly enjoyable and well-written, with some great little subversions of the usual Sherlock Holmes tropes spread out here and there.

 

[Kuala BangoDango]

Not sure why this is newsworthy. It's the same dangerous situation that ANY show with only a few main characters risks, especially when the show is named or based off that main character rather than the setting.

Castle would be cancelled if Nathan Fillion were to be hit by a bus. Supernatural would be cancelled if Jared or Jensen (Sam & Dean) ever left the show. Same with Elementary (mentioned by above posters). Doctor Who would have been cancelled a long time ago due to the actor playing the Doctor leaving if they didn't just happen to have the luck of being a sci-fi show and able to make up the Regeneration feature which of course would not work with any other show set in a modern non sci-fi/fantasy setting.

South Park would be cancelled if Kenny were ever killed by a....erm...nevermind...forget the South Park example.

If the show were called "Scotland Yard" or something similar and based on a larger group of detectives with Sherlock and Watson merely being frequent guest stars then the risk of cancellation from the loss of one actor would be smaller though one could argue that that particular show would also be less popular.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

I'm so glad Mark Gatiss made something amazing after the masterpiece that was The League of Gentlemen. Such a great writer/actor.

 

[Moloch Sacrifice]

...If they didn't resort to seriously outdated cultural stereotypes...

Could you clarify? I don't really follow which stereotypes you're referring to.

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

I'm afraid I don't understand the point you're making. You say you dislike the low quality of cases in Sherlock, yet you tolerate simplistic ones in Elementary; surely this is just a matter of personal preference over the type of subject matter, rather than any objective measure?

I also don't understand what you mean about Sherlock being an asshole. Certainly, he deceives the people closest to him when he fakes his own death, but that was as a measure of protection. It's also made clear that he has been diagnosed with some form of low empathetic disorder, so it's perfectly plausible that John Watson, Mrs Hudson, etc tolerate otherwise inexplicable insensitive behaviour because they know he doesn't fully understand how normal interpersonal interaction works.

 

[Ken Sapp]

I could not watch Sherlock again if they recast either of the duo. I do wish they would put more effort into creating at least a 12 episode run for a season as 3 just barely whets my appetite. I think that if the money and longevity were there they would have a lot easier time getting the actors to work their schedules into alignment and commit more time.

 

[Ferisar]

I could not watch Sherlock again if they recast either of the duo. I do wish they would put more effort into creating at least a 12 episode run for a season as 3 just barely whets my appetite. I think that if the money and longevity were there they would have a lot easier time getting the actors to work their schedules into alignment and commit more time.

12 episodes for a 2-hour episode series is not really easy to accomplish, though; especially when most shows run 12-ish episodes now. Their current system is a bit quirky, but it does the job. The only downside is that arcs tend to be condensed a little more, but the amount of fluff is also not exactly in high amounts.


Actually OT:
Yeah, well, duh. This is true for almost anything. The only downside is, as they said, that these two are well known and thus have busy schedules and other things to participate in. I guess the amount of "fanification" is kind of important in this scenario, too, since Cumberbatch tends to cause ovaries to overload.

 

[Therumancer]

He is as irreplaceable as Jesus.

Okay, kind of a bad example, because there was that time that Jesus had a nasty cold and had Peter fill in for him, and Peter-as-Jesus performed the miracle of finding a quarter in Lazarus' ear, but still.

Well, all jokes aside that's actually close to truth. One of the key cornerstones of modern Christianity (which surprisingly few people are aware of strangely enough) is this painting called "The Mandylion" which is where the popular image of Christ comes from. Contrary to what some people like to claim it wasn't created out of whole cloth to reinforce the conceit of white men. The Mandylion was done my a messenger sent by a king to ask Jesus to come and perform healings for him, Jesus refused as he was busy, and sent one of his disciples instead who indeed was able to do the healings. The messenger (who was hardly a pro by the time's standards) however was excited by his meeting and painted a picture of Jesus. It's one of the few items backed by other records and dating and such that can be truly verified, and also the referenced source for most images that came afterwards. It represents a sort of standard a lot of Catholic investigators use when evaluating Christian artifacts and the like.

I know you were trying to be funny, but I'm a little bored. Mentally insert a "The More You Know" rainbow.

-

That said on the subject, the lesson the BBC should learn from this is that it's wise to contract actors when you start a series like this, to hold them accountable for the show's run, or at least X number of episodes specifically in case they become famous and popular and want to move on to bigger things while you still have a popular product you need them for. Perhaps they did contract these guys, but when I look at "3 episodes a year" here it makes me think whomever did it wasn't very good at their job. This is good for the actors, but not so good for fans of "Sherlock" and the show's creator.

That said I also think the show's creator is being something of a jerk himself. At the end of the day tons of people have played Holmes with varying degrees of success. At the end of the day it's not just how the character is played, but also the quality of the writing and mysteries they set up. If the creator has ideas already ready to go for more mysteries, he should certainly use them, even if it means having a Holmes people might like a bit less. Mysteries have enough genere fans, and Holmes in particular is such an iconic character, that I honestly think not all that many people will mind, what's more "Sherlock" is about as generic a title for this as you can get. This is just my opinion though, I'm sure everyone would prefer the original actors, but they apparently need to move on. Personally I'd like to see "The Tennet" take a shot at the character.

 

[havoc33]

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

I do however like the sound of a TV version of Fargo. Or at least it might be fun. I'll keep an eye out for that.

I have to admit, I've never read the books and I'm not very familiar with the character overall. But a friend recommended the Sherlock series to me, I gave it a go, and I thought it was terrible. The way they use Sherlock's abilites is just way too convenient, and it makes the story overall real lazy. We have a plot hole you say? We'll just use Sherlock's ability to get ourselves out of that one, no problem! Basically they're taking short cuts all the time. It doesn't help that his character is a complete douche bag either, and I find it curious that anyone can possibly relate to the guy. I was hoping to have a detective/crime drama with clever mysteries and a good story, but what I got was some silly British version of CSI.

 

[keosegg]

...If they didn't resort to seriously outdated cultural stereotypes...

Could you clarify? I don't really follow which stereotypes you're referring to.

The entirety of the episode "The Blind Banker". For fuck's sake, the entire episode was basically screaming "Look at how ASIAN these people are! Aren't they so foreign and exotic?"

The Chinese Mafia does not incorporate CIRCUS ACTS into their damn operations.

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

I'm afraid I don't understand the point you're making. You say you dislike the low quality of cases in Sherlock, yet you tolerate simplistic ones in Elementary; surely this is just a matter of personal preference over the type of subject matter, rather than any objective measure?

I'm starting to find that there aren't as many mysteries in "Sherlock" and the show is fast becoming "The Benedict Cumberbatch Power Hour... and a Half". There's just too much fan indulgence, Watson's wedding didn't need to be a whole episode, just the a part of one.

I also don't understand what you mean about Sherlock being an asshole. Certainly, he deceives the people closest to him when he fakes his own death, but that was as a measure of protection. It's also made clear that he has been diagnosed with some form of low empathetic disorder, so it's perfectly plausible that John Watson, Mrs Hudson, etc tolerate otherwise inexplicable insensitive behaviour because they know he doesn't fully understand how normal interpersonal interaction works.

It's going beyond the realm of plausibility now, any normal person would have just stopped working with Sherlock and kicked him in the nuts until his voice rose six octaves a long time ago. His constant asshole-ishness would eventually become too much, no matter how good he is at whatever the hell he does.

 

[Jingle Fett]

He is as irreplaceable as Jesus.

Okay, kind of a bad example, because there was that time that Jesus had a nasty cold and had Peter fill in for him, and Peter-as-Jesus performed the miracle of finding a quarter in Lazarus' ear, but still.

Good job, you just ruined a perfectly good computer monitor by making me spray soda all over it. I hope you're happy
(That mental image lol haven't laughed that hard in a while xD)

OT: It's cool that Martin and Benedict both are really passionate about the show and want to keep doing it, even though they're pretty much famous enough to not really need it. I started watching the series recently and it is pretty good so far...

 

[ExtraDebit]

While I like cumberbatch, no one is irreplaceable. Hugh Laurie would make a great sherlock, he almost is as Dr.House.

 

[spwatkins]

... I do however like the sound of a TV version of Fargo. Or at least it might be fun. I'll keep an eye out for that.

The strange thing is that it turns out to be a game show - "Who's in the woodchipper?".

 

[Excludos]

While I like cumberbatch, no one is irreplaceable. Hugh Laurie would make a great sherlock, he almost is as Dr.House.

And thats not entirely coincidental..
There have been other good sherlock shows and there will be other good ones. But THIS sherlock show will not live without its two star actors. Any series famous for its main character that tries to swap it fails, miserably. The major exception here seems to be Dr. Who.

 

[LenticularHomicide]

...If they didn't resort to seriously outdated cultural stereotypes...

Could you clarify? I don't really follow which stereotypes you're referring to.

The entirety of the episode "The Blind Banker". For fuck's sake, the entire episode was basically screaming "Look at how ASIAN these people are! Aren't they so foreign and exotic?"

The Chinese Mafia does not incorporate CIRCUS ACTS into their damn operations.

That was Season 2, and they've not gone back to that particular (distasteful, badly-written) well ever since. Do note that the original Sherlock Holmes stories also used "exotic Oriental" elements to lend an air of mystery (for example, The Greek Interpreter, The Sign of the Four, The Man with the Twisted Lip, etc.)

I'd rather have them stop the series altogether right now. Dear lord did it drop in quality with the last season. Way too much focus on "Yeah look at my awesome mind powers am I not awesome?" with central mysteries that dropped in quality and a Sherlock that despite being a complete and utter asshole is still somehow adored.

See, that's why I like Elementary. The cases being solved are rather cookie cutter, but at least people don't just take Sherlock's shit and nearly worship the damn guy.

I'm afraid I don't understand the point you're making. You say you dislike the low quality of cases in Sherlock, yet you tolerate simplistic ones in Elementary; surely this is just a matter of personal preference over the type of subject matter, rather than any objective measure?

I'm starting to find that there aren't as many mysteries in "Sherlock" and the show is fast becoming "The Benedict Cumberbatch Power Hour... and a Half". There's just too much fan indulgence, Watson's wedding didn't need to be a whole episode, just the a part of one.

And Watson's wedding wasn't an entire episode. Didn't you notice the three rather intricately intertwined sub-plots that made up, oh, 70% of the episode's running time? It's called a "framing device", and I felt it was rather effective, myself.

As for fan indulgence, yeah, I totally admit that the last episode of Season 3, where he basically becomes Double-O-Sherlock, Britain's Last Line of Defence, was totally bananas. Still can't wait to see how they dig themselves out of that hole.

I also don't understand what you mean about Sherlock being an asshole. Certainly, he deceives the people closest to him when he fakes his own death, but that was as a measure of protection. It's also made clear that he has been diagnosed with some form of low empathetic disorder, so it's perfectly plausible that John Watson, Mrs Hudson, etc tolerate otherwise inexplicable insensitive behaviour because they know he doesn't fully understand how normal interpersonal interaction works.

It's going beyond the realm of plausibility now, any normal person would have just stopped working with Sherlock and kicked him in the nuts until his voice rose six octaves a long time ago. His constant asshole-ishness would eventually become too much, no matter how good he is at whatever the hell he does.

The same could actually be said about House, M.D. any time after Season 5, actually. And I will note that Sherlock Holmes, in the stories, was not at all a pleasant man to be around. Watch the ITV Sherlock Holmes series sometimes (it's probably on Youtube somewhere); it truly manages to capture how much of an aloof, alien character Sherlock Holmes really is, even without any attempts at sexing him up (a la Guy Ritchie / Robert Downey Jr.) or modernising him (a la Sherlock and Elementary).