Recently, Robert Downey Jr opened up about the upcoming third instalment in the Sherlock Holmes film series and revealed that he plans on creating a universe of Sherlock characters similar to MCU.
After being the USP and the biggest box office pull of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for over a decade, Robert Downey Jr took an exit post delivering the biggest blockbuster of all time, Avengers: Endgame.
The movie saw Downey Jr’s Iron Man aka Tony Stark sacrificing himself to save the universe by wiping off the mad titan Thanos and his army of minions their existence.
After taking a glorius exit from the MCU, Robert Downey Jr is now all set to return to his another iconic character of Sherlock Holmes. He played the famed fictional detective in a 2009 film of the same name and in its 2011 sequel titled Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. A thid film in the franchise is slated for a December 22, 2021 release.
While the third film co-starring Jude Law is yet to go on floors, Robert Downey Jr has some ambitious plans for it. Recently, during the Fast Company Innovation Festival, Robert Downey Jr and wife, producer Susan Downey talked about their plans for the future of Sherlock Holmes film series and revealed that they want to create a cinematic universe out of the franchise similar to MCU.
Speaking about it, Robert Downey Jr said,
At this point, we really feel that there is not a mystery-verse built out anywhere, and Conan Doyle is the definitive voice in that arena, I think, to this day. So to me, why do a third movie if you’re not going to be able to spin off into some real gems of diversity and other times and elements?
Susan then added,
We think there’s an opportunity to build it out more. Spin-off characters from a third movie, to see what’s going on in the television landscape, to see what Warner Media is starting to build out, things with HBO and HBO Max.
At the same time while MCU has been a massive success, other cinematic universe failed to leave an impact. When asked about that, Susan stated that they have seen closely how MCU was conceived and built and they will use that experience while creating the Sherlock Holmes Universe. She said,
I do think that the decade of tutelage and observation, what we were both able to have with Marvel, watching them build out and see all the opportunities, was invaluable. It was like a master class. And they really did know what they were doing and they had this tight-knit group of people from [the] jump locked into a vision that enables them to broaden the comics into 23 hit movies (so far).
RDJ also added,
What I saw was very humble beginnings, very uncertain outcomes, a lot of creative risk-taking, but there was also an algorithm to the potential. It’s also having the right people.
After taking an exit from MCU, Robert Downey Jr played Dr Dolittle in the Dolittle. The big budget film that released earlier this year failed to impress the critics and audience alike. Made on a huge budget of $175 million, Dolittle could only gross $249.1 million at the global box office.
As for Sherlock Holmes films. The first film in 2009 was made on a budget of $90 million and collected $524 million at the worldwide box office. Sherkock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) was made on a budget of $125 million and earned $545.4 million.
