Setlock – Fan Gathered Spoilers From The Sherlock Season 3 Set!

People have been following the Sherlock crew as they’ve been filming on location these past few days causing tons of pictures and video to leak out all across the Internet, particularly on Tumblr. There’s been some debate about whether it’s ethical to reblog or share these images since apparently Benedict Cumberbatch had asked some people to stop tweeting and taking pictures. But many of the people on set seemed to interpret that as “stop tweeting and taking pictures right now, but share it all later” (apparently there was a stunt involved or something and they needed to focus). I wasn’t there. I’m several thousand miles away, so I have no idea what was said. All I have to go by is the Setlock tag on Tumblr. But the spoilers are out there and I’m going to talk about them.

WARNING: SPOILERS. Duh. Does that need to be said? Things are quite vague in my opinion. Most of the biggest “spoilers” are just speculation based on casting, overheard dialogue, and still photographs. There are, however, some videos which may or may not be too spoilery for those who are sensitive to spoilers (how have you gotten this far in the article? Turn back now!).

What we DO know is that Amanda Abbington, Martin Freeman’s real life spouse, has a part to play in the episode The Empty Hearse. The title is a play on The Empty House, which is also Sherlock’s first appearance in ACD canon after he took a nasty Reichenbach related tumble. In the ACD version of the story, Sherlock disguises himself as an old man and follows Watson home before dropping the costume. Doctor Watson then faints, which Mark Gatiss has said  feels “a little unlikely.” How he will react in this episode isn’t certain, but some news coming from the Setlock tag might give us a clue.

This bit of footage from @RyanFarrr show’s Amanda’s character (Mary Morstan perhaps?) is talking with Sherlock outside a shop (a middle eastern restaurant?) as he tends to a bloody nose. Since we’re assuming Amanda’s character is somehow tied to Watson (again, Mary? or even just because she is Martin Freeman’s spouse, so that’d make sense too), this seems like it could be the first post reunion scene and Watson may have socked him in the face. Gatiss said that John might “say a terrible string of swear words” when they were reunited.  Hm.  Interesting.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hOxV81gG2Y]

There was also lots of footage and photographs posted of a bonfire scene, where many of the fans that showed up were asked to join in as extras (I will not be jealous, I will not be jealous, no no I am better than that…. I am extremely jealous you guys). Sherlock and probably-Mary run through the crowd towards the bonfire shouting. You can see the video of that here. There seems to be speculation that John is in the bonfire, but I have no reason why some people have been lead to believe that. If you know how that rumor got started, definitely let us know.  Edit: Thanks to a lovely fan who left a comment, I now know this rumors come directly from the extras who were on hand that day.  Source is here.

In the first video, some people think they can hear someone shout “Mary,” but some have taken it to be “Harry” as in “Harry Watson.”  Nothing has been confirmed either way.  If Amanda is playing Mary, it’s important to note that Mary doesn’t live long in ACD canon. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I’m sick of women getting fridged all the time on my favorite shows and it’d be great to have another awesome female one of them. On the other hand, I loved John and Sherlock’s original dynamic and I’m not sure how she’d fit in at 221B Baker Street.  I have a feeling she’s going to be an amazing character, though, and Gatiss and Moffat are going to enjoy ripping our hearts out at her expense. Get the chocolate and tissues ready.  This is gonna hurt.

We also have confirmation that Lestrade and Anderson return. Anderson is sporting facial hair and Lestrade has a buzz cut (fandom approves of the buzz cut, apparently). I know. Vital spoilers, I assure you. There’s also some potential dialogue overheard by the #Setlock people that makes me so incredibly giddy. I love it when the creators have their finger on the pulse of fandom. If that’s true, bravo. I appreciate the nod. But really? From Anderson? Come on guys.  Are you trying to troll us?  Wait.  Of course they are.  This is Gatiss and Moffat we’re talking about.  I’m hoping their are more nods to the #IBelieveInSherlock movement from others besides just Anderson, though.  I personally enjoyed leaving stickers places as a part of a world wide guerrilla art piece.

Also, RED ALERT John Watson has a mustache REPEAT John Watson has a mustache. It is… not so great in my opinion. I guess they are trying to get across the point that time has passed and John has changed, but, eh, I’m just generally not a fan of full on facial hair (stubble and peach fuzz, however, are definitely in the plus category). We really haven’t seen much Martin Freeman on set, though.  Information about John Watson has been startlingly scarce.  There hasn’t been any updates at the John Watson blog since last season, but it was dead during the last hiatus and updated with a ton of stuff all at once, so that might not mean anything.  Guess we’ll just have to wait until more set pictures leak.  Hopefully there will be less mustachio in the next batch.

For more spoilers, I’d check out dudeufugly, who has been updating with information practically daily. Another good source of information is mycroft-holmes-approves.  The cast and crew have a two day break for the Easter holiday, however, so we won’t be getting any new information from them for a while (it’s okay, we have plenty to do for Geekmas already).  I will definitely be following the Setlock tag closely.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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