Is 'Sherlock' Ending? Showrunner Clarifies Benedict Cumberbatch's Season 4 Comments

Benedict Cumberbatch‘s comments on the future of Sherlock indicated that it may end with season four, upsetting fans of the show.

“It might be the end of an era,” he was quoted as saying (via EW). “It feels like the end of an era, to be honest. [Season 4] goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately. We never say never on the show. I’d love to revisit it, I’d love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that. But in the immediate future, we all have things that we want to crack on with and we’ve made something very complete as it is, so I think we’ll just wait and see.

Showrunner Steven Moffat is now saying Benedict was misquoted,

“This is really worth saying because it’s getting exhausting for us all. That’s not what Benedict said,” Steven said. “That’s what someone edited his words into the meaning of. It seems to be impossible these days not to be misquoted. He was quite specific about being keen to carry on. He went on to say he’s hard to get us all together. We want to keep the quality up. We haven’t even seen this [season air] yet. We don’t know. We haven’t sat down with the intent to anything yet. But we’re always aware that it could be over. But the fact is Benedict did not say that.”

The fourth season debuts on January 1 on PBS.

Pictured inside: Steven, producer Sue Vertue, actors Benedict, Martin Freeman, Amanda Abbington and Mark Gatiss at a screening of the Sherlock 2016 Christmas Special at Ham Yard Hotel on Monday (December 19) in London, England.