Sherlock season 5: Mark Gatiss on potential (Moriarty-related) regret

If there ever is a Sherlock season 5 (and we pray to the TV Gods that there is, because who doesn’t want more Sherlock, Watson and Mycroft?), is it possible that we’ll see a Moriarty return? Even though the character has been long dead, anything is possible. After all, this character has somehow returned several times from beyond the grave already, and executive producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have a natural proclivity for finding unique ways to bring people back. Therefore, it could easily happen here, as well. For us at CarterMatt we hope that it does since this is one of the best depictions of Moriarty we’ve ever seen.

Ultimately, the desire to frequently bring back Andrew Scott, and the intellectual challenge that Moriarty provided for Holmes and Watson, may help to further explain why there could be some regret over the way that the character was killed off. Speaking further on the subject in an interview at the Oxford Union, Gatiss had the following to say per the Radio Times:

“There’s always things you’d do differently. Maybe we shouldn’t have killed Moriarty off in the second season … I remember going to the Edinburgh TV Festival with Andrew Scott and he said ‘I’m a bit sad really because it’s all over’ and he’s left the show, like, five times now.

“That was the point though – telling 90-minute stories, they’re so big and film-length the stakes [like killing off major characters] have to be big.”

Basically, it feels like what Gatiss is saying the long-explanation version of the classic #SorryNotSorry hashtag. He’s bummed that he lost the character as a living entity (as we all are), but it did create one of the biggest moments of the entire series to date. The challenge that the show has now has is trying to find a way to create some other characters that can live up to that hype. If they are able to do that, then maybe down the road there is a good chance that Sherlock will be able to move past his ghost. It’s just so much easier said than done when you’ve got a performer of Scott’s magnitude who was bringing it in every episode he was in. It’s almost impossible to find anyone who is going to be able to match that level of greatness.

What do you think: Should Sherlock regret killing Moriarty, or was this a great mvoe in order to push the story forward in some exciting directions? Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comments! (Photo: BBC.)

While there is no Sherlock season 5 planned at the moment, be sure to check out the link here for some further updates here and there on the show. (Photo: BBC One.)