As you may know, Sherlock is currently in limbo. Due to the ridiculously successful careers of its two stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, it is currently unknown if the BBC show will ever get a fifth series. Given that, you might think that the production team had at least once considered recasting the lead roles and continuing. Well, apparently not.

At The BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, Moffat was asked whether Cumberbatch and Freeman could ever be replaced. He replied with a pretty conclusive answer:

“Absolutely not. Under no circumstances. That show is Benedict plus Martin, more than anything – they could get rid of me and Mark [Gatiss, co-creator] first, It’s Benedict and Martin, it has to be them.”

He went on to explain:

“That doesn’t mean that there won’t be other Sherlock Holmes – there are already other Sherlocks and other Watsons out there – but this version of Sherlock Holmes is those two actors, it absolutely is. And I know that because I saw it[…] the very first time that Martin and Benedict played those parts together in the audition room.

“I had cast Benedict and we hadn’t cast a Watson yet and in Martin came, the two of them acted together – all the wonderful cinematography and the beautiful score and all that was still in the future but there was the show, there was the show just right there as if my magic, right in front of us, and I leaned over to Mark and said ‘that’s it, that’s the show right there’. You can’t recast that – that’s what it is.”

“Everything else is great,” he continued. “I’m very, very proud of Sherlock. You can admire great cinematography, a great score, great direction, you can admire all those things, but you only fall in love with people – and the people you fall in love with on Sherlock are Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.”

Hear hear!

Is there anyone out there who actually would like to see Cumberbatch or Freeman recast? Don’t be shy – let us know in the comments!