Film

Young Sherlock Showrunner Discusses Potential Watson Appearance In Season 2

4 March 2026

Sherlock Holmes fans: don’t count on Watson making an appearance should Young Sherlock get a second season.

The Amazon Prime Video series tells the story from a 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes’ point of view. Played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Holmes finds himself entangled in a murder at Oxford that jeopardizes his freedom. His first case, tackled recklessly, leads him to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy that alters his path forever.

And while the show, which also stars Zine Tseng, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Colin Firth, and Max Irons, just made its debut — preceded by a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes — making major plot changes regarding which characters will or will not be involved should we see more of Young Sherlock, isn’t exactly on the table — nor off of it. In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley ahead of the Amazon Prime series’ first season, showrunner Matthew Parkhill offered a cagey response about Dr. Watson.

Mathew Parkhill: I’m not going to take the bait. Definitely not going to take the bait on that… What happens to Sherlock and [James] Moriarty if Watson comes into the picture? They suddenly got a love triangle, right? So I don’t know. We’ll see.

Though viewers will have to wait and see if the show gets picked up for a second season, Parkhill did share some insight into the character of James Moriarty, played by Dónal Finn. While fans know what happens between Holmes and Moriarty — to an extent — thanks in part to Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes novels and the lore surrounding the iconic detective, what’s next for Moriarty is less clear, and so his potential turn to the “dark side.”

Matthew Parkhill: [The seeds] have been planted. That relationship between them is so beautiful — I don’t want to play the result too quickly… ultimately, we know where that’s going to end, but I personally love that friendship, and I don’t want them to rupture too soon, because it’s just going to break my heart. So I’m going to want to enjoy that friendship. And ultimately, yes, the decline of that friendship will be a key part of the story.

That does technically leave room for Watson, and that aforementioned love triangle — fingers crossed! Guy Ritchie‘s homecoming to the franchise is a truly distinct telling of the Sherlock Holmes story, however, set apart from his previous films on the detective, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. And as Parkhill made clear to ScreenRant, it is in no way “a prequel.”

Matthew Parkhill: It’s not a prequel. And it was a conversation Guy and I had very, very early on. Guy was already involved when I came onboard. And one of our first conversations was this has to be … He doesn’t grow up to be Robert Downey Jr. We just wanted to make something that lived in its own world, lived in its own space.

And that it does!

All eight episodes of Young Sherlock are streaming now on Prime Video.