‘Sherlock’ season 4: Premiere date speculation, filming chatter for Benedict Cumberbatch series

Today is not just New Year’s Day, but there is another momentum event taking place for fans of “Sherlock” all over America and the United Kingdom: The special “The Abominable Bride” is airing! It may have already finished by the time you are reading this depending on where you are, but we are watching this approximately one hour before the special begins on BBC One.

So when are we going to return to the modern era, and when will filming for season 4 proper begin? According to the Telegraph earlier this fall, production is going to take place on the upcoming episodes earlier this spring; star Benedict Cumberbatch has been busy as of late filming “Doctor Strange,” so we imagine that either he will be done with this role or filming will be on a break while he jumps over to playing Sherlock Holmes once more.

As for the likely premiere date, this is far more mysterious a question. We could imagine the BBC trying to air episodes in the fall in order to compensate for a likely late start for “Doctor Who” season 10, but there’s a part of us that wonders if the show would even be ready by then. From our vantage point it is far likelier that the series will resume airing episodes in January 2017, given that both season 3 and “The Abominable Bride” began at the start of the year. This is a nice window for the series, and there is not too much in the way of competition crowding the field and making it difficult to find viewers.

As for whether or not PBS will kindly air episodes on the same day that the BBC is, that’s to be seen. Today marks the first occasion in which this has been a priority for them.

We’ll have our full take on “The Abominable Bride” and other coverage later today over at the link here. Be on the lookout! Also, you can sign up over at this link to secure some more TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC One.)