Creators Reveal 3 Key Words for “Sherlock” Season 3

Sherlock Holmes / Benedict Cumberbatch fans, get ready: we still have another year to go until the first episode from season 3 of the BBC One series airs, but at least its creators have revealed the first hints about it.

Showrunner Steven Moffat and co-creator Mark Gatiss have just unveiled the 3 key words for all upcoming episodes – and, even though this is good news, it's also a bad omen because it hints this next season is the last, as Deadline also points out.

The key words are “Rat,” “Wedding” and “Bow.”

“That could mean the Arthur Conan Doyle source material used for the episodes will be 'The Giant Rat of Sumatra,' 'The Noble Bachelor' and 'His Last Bow,' which, if correct, would point to season three being the show’s last,” Deadline says.

The move to end the series would also make sense given Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman's increasingly packed schedules.

Last year's key words were “Woman,” “Hound” and “Fall,” which stood for the episodes “A Scandal in Belgravia,” “The Hounds of Baskerville” and “The Reichenbach Fall.”