"Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows"
Downey's Holmes and Law's Watson return, joined by Stephen Fry, Rachel McAdams, and Jared Harris as Professor Moriarty. Sherlock Holmes 2 Still

Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows just released its new trailer today, revealing Rachel McAdams returning as Irene Adler, Jude Law's Watson marrying Mary, the entrance of Dr. Moriarty... and Robert Downey Jr., chatting up gypsies and dressing in drag.

It's been a good year for Robert Downey Jr. The Avengers trailer just hit audiences, showing Downey back in full Iron Man form as smarmy but loveable Tony Stark. Now, with the return of the world's greatest detective to the big screen, Sherlock Holmes 2 looks to be pulling out all the stops.

The trailer (view below) opens with Sim, a fortuneteller played by Noomi Rapace, best known from The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo films. What do you see? she murmurs. Everything, Dr. Holmes responds. And that's what audiences get as well. We're treated to glimpses of rather posh baddie Professor James Moriarty, a shifty but sexy Rachel McAdams, and plenty of banter between Watson and an alternately scruffy and dragged-out Sherlock Holmes (Oh, how I've missed you, says Jude Law's Watson, to which Downey replies, Have you? I've barely noticed your absence).

Though the mystery itself has yet to be revealed in the new trailer, this particular Sherlock Holmes vehicle has never been big on the unraveling itself. Guy Ritchie prefers to immerse the viewer in inside jokes, beautifully shot Victorian action sequences, and characters set in a murky, fog-light atmosphere begging for a Baskerville hound.

Here, Holmes and Watson take on the most formidable criminal mind in London, and Holmes' nemesis: Moriarty, played by Jared Harris after his successful Mad Men run. We even catch a glimpse of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother, here played by Stephen Fry.

With BBC taking care of the purist set with its own TV series Sherlock, less bookish viewers still have plenty to dig into in this mainstream crowd-pleased. It's my curse, says Robert Downey Jr., as Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows shows us everything he processes in his exquisite Victorian-modern world. Maybe for him; not for us.

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