National Treasure Colin Firth recently joined the cast of the Young Sherlock series alongside Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, and Zine Tseng.

While we may never get a third instalment in Guy Richie's Sherlock Holmes franchise with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, Richie is returning to the world of the legendary detective with Amazon Prime Video's Young Sherlock series. Based on the books by Andrew Lane, the show is written by Matthew Parkhill (Deep State, Nautilus), with Guy Richie directing most of the episodes. Ahead of production kicking off in Cardiff later this year, here's the first synopsis for the series.

"At age 19, Sherlock Holmes is disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed, when he finds himself caught up in a murder mystery at Oxford University which threatens his freedom. Diving into his first-ever case with a wild lack of discipline, Sherlock manages to unravel a globe-trotting conspiracy that will change his life forever."

Fiennes-Tiffin will play the titular Young Sherlock with (his real-life Uncle) Joseph Fiennes, and Natascha McElhone will play his parents. Meanwhile, Firth will star as Sir Bucephalus Hodge, which sounds like a potential arc-enemy type name to me. Richie has been building a fruitful partnership with Amazon. In the UK, his last four films (Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune, The Covenant, and next week, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) all debuted on the streamer.  

News of a third chapter in Richie's Sherlock Holmes movie franchise has gone silent in recent years. The last we heard, Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman, Ghosted) was in line to take over the franchise. A worthy successor as the actor turned director, Fletcher starred in Richie's debut, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 

This isn't Hollywood's first time delving into the adventures of a Young Sherlock Holmes. In 1985, Barry Levinson directed the criminally underrated Young Sherlock Holmes from a script by Chris Columbus that charted the first case for the brave young Sherlock and his first meeting with Watson. Nicolas Rowe starred as the rebellious young Sherlock, who, ironically, also went on to star in Guy Richie's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Rowe would play Sherlock (sort of) again in the Ian McKellen-led Mr Holmes; Rowe played the actor playing Sherlock in the film McKellen's old Sherlock is watching at the Cinema. Talk about meta.