‘Sherlock’ season 4: Could new season really be upon us at Christmas?

When it comes to “Sherlock,” we know fans will do almost anything at this point to check out some more of the show as soon as possible. The wait for season 3, after all, was insufferable. It took two years to get the series back on the air, and then after that, it took less than two weeks for the entirety of it to air on British television. Think about just how painful that is, especially when you are thinking about waiting for another two years.

Is it possible that we could have a wait that is much more accommodating? We’ve heard the rumors that episodes could be out again at the end of the year, but we’re skeptical about that for so many reasons. The first one? When in the world there would be time to make them? Martin Freeman’s busy at work on “Fargo,” Benedict Cumberbatch has a film career, and Steven Moffat right now is hard at work on “Doctor Who” for the next several months. It feels like the earliest they could start filming would be the summer, and that is if Moffat is able to multi-task when it comes to writing.

As for some more evidence that the rumored date may just be a rumor, Freeman told Zap2It at the TCA panel for “Sherlock” this week that he hasn’t seen any material suggesting that filming is on the horizon:

“I haven’t read any new scripts. All I know is that we all like the show and we all want to keep doing it for as long as we want to do it, as long as we enjoy it.”

We do at least know that Freeman enjoys it, and Moffat is already thinking even beyond season 4 for a potential fifth go-around for these characters. Thanks to the way that the series is constructed, we really could see it lasting a long time so long as everyone has the freedom to work when they want, only do three episodes, and then move on to other things.

Photo: BBC One