Benedict Cumberbatch Says ‘Sherlock’ Season 4 “Might Be The End Of An Era”

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch has given the strongest hint yet that the fourth season of the British mystery series may indeed be its last.

“It might be the end of an era,” Cumberbatch told GQ UK in a recent interview. “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. 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. The idea of never playing him again is really galling.”

There has been no season 5 renewal for the series, which airs on PBS in the U.S. and BBC in the UK, and co-creator Steven Moffat had previously said in an interview that he would be “mildly surprised” if Season 4 is the last, the mildness due mainly to the busy schedules of stars Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Moffat and co-creator Mark Gatis didn’t give any assurances that there would be a Season 5 at San Diego Comic-Con in July, but also said they never intended to imply that Season 4 would be the last. They did say that this season will be the darkest thing the showrunners have ever written for the show. Stay tuned.

Cumberbatch stars in Marvel’s new Doctor Strange movie that’s set for release on November 4.

Sherlock Season 4 premieres in 2017.