Warning: Contains Sherlock Series 2 spoilers
With Mark Gatiss committed to not one, but two new series of Sherlock for the BBC, it should be obvious that the great 'tec hasn't *necessarily *met his end in the Reichenbach Falls incident that ended the second series. Gatiss tweeted the image below this morning with news that the first episode of series 3 will be called ''The Empty Hearse".
Exclusive! Ep 1 will be called 'The Empty Hearse'. The game is on! [#Sherlock](https://twitter.com/search/%23Sherlock) [twitpic.com/ccbzh8](http://t.co/9WMjWVdGPQ "http://twitpic.com/ccbzh8") > > — Mark Gatiss (@Markgatiss) [March 18, 2013](https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/313563301302902784)
Read into that what you will, but clearly Holmes' sharpened capacity for cunning and sleight-of-hand have survived with him. According to Metro, the first ep with be based on Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Adventure Of The Empty House which sees the introduction of villain Sebastian Moran.
“There’s certain things about The Adventure Of The Empty House which feel set in stone", elaborates Gatiss, "because that’s how Sherlock comes back, but at the same time we feel free to invent and to introduce new stuff to it.”
The Beeb's Holmes is getting out ahead of the Guy Ritchie big-screen version, which, if Jude Law's webchat comments are anything to go by, are still in its embryonic stage. "There's a script meeting in March, but there's a desire to do another one," the Other Watson told Empire. "We all took a very decisive break and now it's just starting to reassemble."
The Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman Holmes will air later this year.