With fans of the Robert Downey Jr.-led Sherlock Holmes franchise still rallying for a third installment, actor Eddie Marsan has provided a discouraging update regarding the threequel. Marsan, who plays Inspector Lestrade in the fan-favorite film series, shared his opinion regarding the dwindling prospects of Sherlock Holmes 3 in a recent interview, claiming that he is unsure if the movie will ever materialize.

Eddie Marsan isn’t sure Sherlock Holmes 3 will happen after two Avengers movies

While speaking with ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns about his upcoming feature, All the Devils Are Here, Marsan expressed doubt that Sherlock Holmes 3 would ever reach a stage of completion due to the constant delays in its production.

“Every year, I hear that they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it, and it never happens,” the English actor noted before adding, “I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s ever going to happen.”

Marsan’s comments about Sherlock Holmes 3 come after Susan Downey, who served as a producer in both the 2009 flick and its 2011 sequel, admitted that they “came pretty close at one point” to making the much-awaited threequel. The producer disclosed that before the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold, the Sherlock Holmes team was actively working towards turning the project into reality. “It just didn’t work out timing-wise, because we couldn’t get it in before Jude [Law] was going to be unavailable,” Robert Downey Jr.’s wife explained during an interview with Collider.

Downey even shared some tidbits about the plot of the film, adding that Sherlock Holmes 3 has “always been kind of set in America.”

Helmed by Guy Ritchie, the first Sherlock Holmes movie came out on the big screen in 2009, with its sequel, A Game of Shadows, hitting theaters in 2011. Since then, there have been little to no official updates regarding a third installment. With Robert Downey Jr. returning to the Marvel setup in 2026 with Avengers: Doomsday, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, the future of Sherlock Holmes 3 appears bleak at best, at the time of writing.