ELEMENTARY at Comic-Con: 4 Things You Need to Know About the New Sherlock Holmes Series

Much like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’s session at Comic-Con, most of Thursday’s ELEMENTARY hour was spent screening the pilot for the newest adaption of Sherlock Holmes for Con attendees. But to dig a little deeper, keep reading for four highlights from the panel…

The two current television Sherlock Holmes have talked about their “shared” role.

While there will undoubtedly be comparisons between CBS’ ELEMENTARY and the BBC series, SHERLOCK,  Jonny Lee Miller (who stars as Sherlock Holmes on the CBS version) has had a bit of an unexpected conversation partner about his new role: his FRANKENSTEIN co-star, Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes in the BBC adaptation.

“It was a conversation we had; he’s been very supportive.” Miller said. “[Everyone at ELEMENTARY] wanted to be sure it was different [from the BBC version]…we were just discussing what a wonderful character it is.”

But in case you were worried about this new series borrowing too heavily from the current BBC one (or the recent movie franchise), the ELEMENTARY gang insisted that most of their inspiration comes from the books.

Yes, Watson is a woman. No, the world does not need to end over it.

While much of the early buzz about the series was over the fact that Lucy Liu was cast as Holmes’ partner, Watson (a role traditionally played by a male), the panelists downplayed the controversy at Comic-Con.

“I always think it’s wonderful when people do turn things on their head,” Liu said, denying that she had heard of any criticism of her casting prior to the panel. “There is a difference when it’s a man and a woman and a man and a man…there’s potential. I’m not saying it’s romantic, but I think it gives a different shift, a little bit of a tingle.”

So yes, while there’s natural tension between Holmes and Watson (who in this series is his “sober coach”) the change was not intended to make this a will they/won’t they series.

Will Sherlock be facing familiar foes?

Given the abundance of potential source materials for ELEMENTARY, it would be understandable if the writers chose to spend part of the first season rehashing some familiar cases, but executive producer Robert Doherty said that wouldn’t be the case.

“We love the relationship and we love the mythology,” he said. “We want to create new stories…[but] familiar names will pop up.”

More intriguingly, Doherty allowed that it would be “a shame” if Moriarty didn’t appear at some point in the series. Hm…

Pressure? What pressure?

While stepping into one of the most famous partnerships in literature could be daunting for some, Miller and Liu seemed perfetly at ease over their roles.

“The fact that there are so many [remakes] over the years takes the pressure off a little bit in my mind,” Miller said. “You always go back to the source material that you have, which is the book…You can go through a lot of reading material and…discover new stuff. Things you can change and modernize.”

“I think pressure is a good thing,” Liu added. “[It’s] nice to have pressure, it gives us an opportunity.”

–

ELEMENTARY premieres Thursday, September 27 at 10PM on CBS. Will you be tuning in?

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And to be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel atyoutube.com/givememyremotetv