BBC 'Sherlock' Season 4: Mark Gatiss Confirms Benedict Cumberbatch is Filming!

It's been nearly two years since season 3 of Sherlock and four months since that Victorian Christmas episode that raised a few eyebrows, but it seems the BBC is finally putting things into perspective and bringing the consulting detective back: Mark Gatiss, one of the showrunners and the actor who plays Mycroft Holmes, has shared the first snap of Benedict Cumberbatch on set!

Last Monday, Gatiss took to Twitter to share the first snap from the upcoming season of Sherlock, and while it's basically just Cumberbatch giving his back to the camera, one thing is for certain: the game is on!

Back! #Sherlock pic.twitter.com/WFvpGpy3PV

— Mark Gatiss (@Markgatiss) April 11, 2016

While this is the fourth season of the show, the first one aired in 2010, as so far the rhythm of release is one three-episode season every other year. However, the episodes are 90 minutes each, so it's basically like a set of three movies with the characters every two years.

"Season 4 begins with the mercurial Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), back once more on British soil as Doctor Watson (Martin Freeman) and his wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) prepare for their biggest challenge yet: becoming parents," reads the season's synopsis, via Collider.

In the time since Sherlock began, Cumberbatch and co-star Freeman have both gone on to become Hollywood superstars, which has made scheduling the next season pretty hard. Last year, Cumberbatch became an Academy Award nominee for his work in The Imitation Game, and he recently wrapped up his next big film, Marvel's Doctor Strange, where he'll play the title role of the surgeon who becomes the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme.

Freeman, who starred in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy from 2012 to 2014, will also join the Marvel superhero world this year, though in a different capacity: he's playing U.S. Department liaison Everett K. Ross in the superhero showdown Captain America: Civil War. He also starred in the first season of FX's Fargo.

Could we expect season 4 of Sherlock to hit BBC this very year?

via GIPHY