Though the main image for the fourth series of Sherlock has so far made it look like Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes has replaced Martin Freeman's Watson with a bloodhound, the four-legged sidekick makes no appearance in the first trailer for the new batch of shows.
That leads us to think that the dog will be something of a lesser participant (and indeed in the Sherlock panel at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, there was much talk of the pooch's unwillingness to move, let alone provide the physical comedy of dragging Cumberbatch around).
According to creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, this will be an even darker series than what has gone before, but will still blend in humour. That said, the laughs will be less meta than last time, which may please some fans. This new trailer certainly seems to indicate that the darkness will be in full force, and Toby Jones gets to deliver his best maniacal cackle as one of the main villains for this run. From the looks of the footage, Holmes' friends and family will be under threat and as Louise Brealey's Molly says, it's definitely not a game.
We can expect to see John and Mary (Amanda Abbington) Watson dealing with life as new parents (Abbington reveals that one of the babies topped the dog problem by projectile vomiting) and that this may not be, as concerned fans speculated, the final series. But it will all depend on the stars' schedules.
Sherlock Series 4, which is two weeks from finishing its shoot, will be on our screens at some point (probably earlier rather than later) next year.