Sherlock Season 4 Release Date & News Update: Writer Says 'Devastating' Story Ahead, One-Off Episode Coming Soon?

Sherlock won three Emmys back in August for its two acting leads, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and also for its writing. While the actors weren't around to collect their awards, the shows main writers and producers were on-hand, and they took the time to tease the media with tidbits about the upcoming and much-anticipated Series 4, slated to arrive on the small screen sometime in 2016.

Series 4

After winning an Emmy at this year's awards show, Steven Moffat explained that the plan is to try and top Series 3, which just might have been the show's best yet. "We have a plan to top [Series 3]. And I do think our plan is devastating. We've practically reduced our cast to tears telling them the plan ... we're probably more excited that we've ever been about Sherlock."

That's pretty amazing news that after all the critical and commercial success, the show's creators are as excited as ever to continue the story. The show's other main writer, Mark Gatiss also had something to say about the upcoming series at a post-Emmys HBO afterparty.

"We're going to try to take it somewhere we've never been before - and I don't mean outer space," Gatiss teased. "It will be challenging place to go. We always start with a re-introduction that builds toward a darker climax - we might just be going darker. We got a very, very good set of ideas."

Moffat also admitted he was surprised that the show won anything at the Emmys this year. "I didn't think we'd win anything. I'm a bit worried about rewinding and seeing my speech ... we were just starting to think that phase [of getting accolades] was dying down ... hopefully more people will watch [the show]."

One-Off Special?

While Series 4 won't be released until 2016 at the earliest, there has been talk of a one-off episode that would not be part of any series and would be a stand alone entry of the show. According to Screen Rant, Martin Freeman, who plays Dr. Watson on the show, recently admitted that such an idea has been floated about by writer Mark Gatiss.

"Mark Gatiss may beat me up, but there is an idea for this one-off special that's such a good idea, and as I was listening to it I thought 'we've just got to do this.' And I don't know when we are going to be able to do it, unfortunately. It's a fantastic, really mouth-watering idea. But I really don't know when we are going to get to do it."

Hopefully it's a musical episode. That would be awesome.