‘Sherlock’ season 4 spoilers: Martin Freeman foresees 2015 Christmas special

For those of you wanting to finally have the answer as to when “Sherlock” season 4 could return, we finally come bearing some good news: Confidence from one of the stars! When was the last time that you had that when it comes to a premiere date. To quote the bad guy from “True Detective,” it’s been a long, long time. Nobody has wanted to get the hopes up for fans, or make a promise that they were not able to live up to.

So in what is one of the first cases of the show really trying to get you excited about something coming up, Martin Freeman has strongly suggested that there will be at least one episode ready next year … but it most likely will not be until Christmas. Just take a look at his recent comments per the Telegraph:

“If that’s going to be a special – I’m speaking off-message here; if this was New Labour I’d get fired – I think that might be for next Christmas. A Christmas special. That’s what I understand.”

That’s not a guarantee by any means, but it is at least a sign of hope. Filming for this episode would feasibly take place early next year; while it’s probably not enough to consider it a proper season 4, it would at least be a sign that all parties involved are invested in keeping the series going for a while longer.

Freeman also suggested that Amanda Abbington, his real-life who plays Watson’s fictional wife Mary, would also likely return for more. He said some other things about the character, as well, but we don’t want to say too much on that yet in the event that you are not that familiar with the Sherlock Holmes story. It’s not so much a spoiler, but it could still be harmful for some of you out there.

Excited to hear this news, or are you going to wait for the BBC to confirm a special before you start to get excited? (At this point, we don’t blame you.) Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over here to get some further news and clues from us at CarterMatt via our newsletter.

Photo: BBC One