Sherlock Season 4 release date
Watson (Martin Freeman, left) and Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) will return in "Sherlock" Season 4, but it won't air stateside until next year. Hartswood Films for Masterpiece/Robert Viglasky

The Jan. 1 “Sherlock” special may have gotten fans excited for the mystery series to return, but there will still be a wait for Season 4. PBS revealed that U.S. viewers of the British import won’t see the series until next year.

PBS President Paula Kerger divulged the news. “We do have the next ‘Sherlock’ announced, that is coming up about a year from now,” she told Zap2It.

She added that January 2017 was being looked at as the tentative date, though nothing is firmly scheduled yet. “As you know, they are produced almost like films, and we’re hoping the next one will be about a year from now,” she continued.

The drama, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, returned for the first time since 2014 with a standalone episode on New Year’s Day. However, the Victorian-era special was not related to Season 4, which will return in the modern day. Showrunner Steven Moffat hasn’t revealed much about the new season. However, last year he teased that Holmes (Cumberbatch) and Watson (Freeman) would be faced with the effects of their actions.

“It’s consequences. Chickens come to roost,” Moffat told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s dark in some ways —obviously it’s great fun and a Sherlock Holmes romp and all that — but there’s a sense of… things… coming back to bite you. It’s not a safe, sensible way to live. It’s hilarious and exhilarating some days, but some days it’s going to be bloody frightening.”

Diehard Sherlockians will likely find a few more spoilers when the show starts filming. Freeman and Cumberbatch are heading back to set in the spring.

Though U.S. viewers will have to wait until 2017 for “Sherlock” Season 4, U.K. viewers might not have to wait that long. PBS typically airs British series after they air overseas. However, the “Sherlock” standalone special aired on the same day in both places for the first time. It isn’t clear if that was a special occasion or if American and British viewers will watch “Sherlock” on the same day going forward.

“Sherlock” Season 4 returns in 2017.

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