‘Sherlock’ Season 4 Updates, Spoilers: Benedict Cumberbatch Professes Love on Newest Trailer, Ready to Expose Dark Secrets; Martin Freeman Talks Watson Becoming Parent

‘Sherlock’ season 4 trailer featured Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes professing his love to a yet unrevealed character. It also promised that dark secrets will be exposed. Meanwhile, Martin Freeman talked about Watson becoming a parent in a recent interview.

One of the most interesting scenes in the new trailer for season 4 showed Benedict Cumberbatch’s titular protagonist saying “I love you” to a mysterious character as he stares straight at the camera. In the video, Toby Jones’s villainous Culverton Smith intimidates Cumberbatch’s Holmes asking, “What’s the very worst thing you can do to your very best friends?... Tell them your darkest secret.” Culverton is set to appear on the second episode of the season.

According to Variety, Cumberbatch hinted that the incoming season may be the last of the series. He said, “It might be the end of an era. It feels like the end of an era, to be honest. It goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately.” It seems that his character is set to face his own demons and possibly go to dark places once the series returns on the small screen.

The first episode for the incoming season will be entitled “The Six Thatchers” and directed by Rachel Talalay of ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘The Flash’ fame. According to Digital Trends, the episode’s title may be a reference to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1904 story entitled “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.” In the original story, Sherlock and Watson investigate a case of smashed statues of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The synopsis for “The Six Thatchers” posted on BBC reads, “Sherlock waits to see where Moriarty will make his posthumous move. One mysterious case in particular baffles Scotland Yard, but Sherlock is more interested in a seemingly trivial detail. Why is someone destroying images of the late prime minister Margaret Thatcher? Is there a madman on the loose? Or is there a much darker purpose at work? Something with its roots deep in Mary Watson's past...”

The new season will introduce Watson and his wife Mary’s (Amanda Abbington) newborn child. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Freeman revealed that the arrival of the child will bring in changes especially for Watson and Mary.

When asked about how fatherhood is set to change Watson, he replied, “Well, I think in the ways that it does in real life, I guess — the ways that it changes you as parents in real life. That’s just a big responsibility. It can’t change the show that much because the dynamic of the show generally speaking is Sherlock and John, and their shenanigans fighting crime, but there has always been an emotional heart to the show as well, I think.”

He continues, “I suppose it would follow on from John and Mary becoming parents, and that inevitable responsibility that comes with that. Stakes get bigger.”

‘Sherlock’ season 4 is scheduled to premiere on January 1, 2017 in both the United States and the United Kingdom, a full year following a hiatus of the series. The series last aired a 2015 Christmas special, entitled “The Abominable Bride.” Cumberbatch is set to return as the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and co-star Martin Freeman reprising his role as Holmes’ partner and friend Dr. John Watson.