Sherlock's 2026 Return Is Even Better Than We Expected

Published Jul 25, 2026, 1:59 PM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. It’s become an annoying trend for Hollywood to churn out origin stories for characters that don’t need them, just to cash in on a familiar I.P. Johnny Depp is making a movie called Ebenezer, about the origin story of Ebenezer Scrooge, despite the fact that the Ghost of Christmas Past already filled it in for us in the original story. Prime Video just released Elle, a prequel to Legally Blonde, about a young Elle Woods, despite the fact that Elle’s “origin story” is her transformation from vapid mean girl to whip-smart law student. That’s when her character development began, and everything before that is irrelevant, so it doesn’t need its own TV show. Some of these “unnecessary” prequels that “nobody asked for” actually turn out to be pretty awesome, like Andor or Wonka, but fans are naturally skeptical whenever one of these projects is announced. When Amazon announced that it was making a Young Sherlock series with Guy Ritchie, it just begged the question, why is he making this instead of Sherlock Holmes 3? We’ve been waiting for a decade-and-a-half for Ritchie to reunite with Robert Downey, Jr. for another Sherlock Holmes adventure. At first, his Marvel schedule prevented him from playing Sherlock again, but even after Iron Man died, the threequel languished in development hell. Now, Downey is committed to another major multi-movie Marvel role, and Ritchie is working on a totally different Sherlock Holmes project. Young Sherlock follows a 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes as he sets out to solve his first murder mystery as a student at Oxford, and it’s surprisingly great. That Ritchie/Downey threequel is pretty much dead in the water, but Young Sherlock has proven to be a pretty fitting consolation prize. It’s the most exciting Sherlock-adjacent TV project since the heyday of the BBC’s Sherlock and Elementary. Young Sherlock Is The Best Sherlock Holmes Show In Years There were a few ominous warning signs before Young Sherlock came out. It’s a backstory for a character who doesn’t need one; Ritchie’s last TV show, MobLand, was a mixed bag; and the cast is almost exclusively made up of nepo babies: Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays Sherlock, Joseph Fiennes plays Silas, and Max Irons plays Mycroft. But, when it premiered on March 4, Young Sherlock surprisingly turned out to be one of the best new shows of the year. The actors are all pretty great in their roles, and the central whodunit is gripping enough to get you through the season. We’ve seen a pleasant trend this year with spinoff shows that seemed pointless or gimmicky and turned out to be an absolute gem. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms might be the greatest Game of Thrones show we’ve seen yet, and its refreshingly small-scale, low-stakes narrative was the best thing about it. Spider-Noir seemed like a bad idea, giving the comic relief of an animated movie his own live-action TV series, but it turned out to be the funnest, wildest superhero show we’ve had in years. Young Sherlock turned out to be a similar surprise when it dropped a couple of months ago. While Tiffin has proven to be a solid Sherlock, Dónal Finn steals the show as James Moriarty, who’s depicted in the prequel as Sherlock’s school chum (but will inevitably become his arch-nemesis later down the line). Plus, it’s a lot more visually engaging than the average streaming show, thanks to Ritchie’s keen eye behind the camera. Young Sherlock has proven to be so popular that Amazon had already renewed it for a second season within a month of its release. So, catch up on season 1 before season 2 comes out in, like, three years or something. Young Sherlock 9/10 Release Date March 4, 2026 Network Prime Video Cast Hero Fiennes Tiffin Sherlock Holmes Zine Tseng Princess Gulun Shou’an Showrunner Matthew Parkhill