In June 2020, Netflix's new film Enola Holmes and Henry Cavill's new take on famous detective Sherlock Holmes became the target of a rather bizarre lawsuit from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, which argued that it infringes on copyrighted material. The copyrighted material being infringed upon? Sherlock Holmes's emotions.

The majority of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels have long been in the public domain, with the exception of ten stories published between 1923 and 1927. The Conan Doyle Estate still owns most of these stories, though the copyright terms began to expire in 2018 and all the stories will be in the public domain by 2022. In 2015 the estate filed a lawsuit against Miramax's film Mr. Holmes, which featured the detective in his later years (the studio settled). The latest complaint lists Enola Holmes author Nancy Springer, director Harry Bradbeer and screenwriter Jack Thorne, and Netflix among the defendants. It contends that prior to the stories published from 1923 onwards, Sherlock was cold, unfeeling, misogynistic and incapable of real friendship. On this basis, the lawsuit argues that by displaying warmth and kindness to his younger sister, the version of Sherlock played by Cavill in Enola Holmes is infringing upon the Conan Doyle Estate's copyright.

Related: Enola Holmes Cast & Character Guide

One reason that the lawsuit rests so heavily on the degree of emotion shown by Cavill's Sherlock is that, in terms of Enola Holmes's time setting, the Sherlock being portrayed is clearly from the early Doyle stories. The film is set in 1884, and the fact that Sherlock doesn't appear to have met John Watson yet suggests that he's actually a pre-Doyle Holmes. Therefore the crux of the complaint rests on whether or not Cavill's Sherlock is uniquely kind, emotional and respectful of women in a way that he only was in the copyrighted stories, and never was in the public domain works. When it comes to being charming, Henry Cavill is definitely guilty as charged - but is his portrayal of Sherlock guilty as well?

Is Henry Cavill's Sherlock Holmes Too Emotional?

Enola Holmes Henry Cavill Sherlock Illustration

Cavill's take on Sherlock Holmes is certainly less cold, rude, and deliberately antagonistic than Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch's recent portrayals, but he's also far more stoic and restrained. He conveys emotion with subtle smiles or furrows of his brow (and, in one particularly elated instance towards the end of the movie, says "ha!" to himself after learning that Enola has beaten him to solving a case). Sherlock's respect for Enola and delight at her success is another point of contention, as the Conan Doyle Estate's lawsuit argues that Sherlock never treated women with warmth or respect prior to the 1926 story "The Lion's Mane." However, this claim is contradicted by Sherlock's great admiration for Irene Adler in the 1891 story "A Scandal in Bohemia."

As portrayed in Enola Holmes, Sherlock is effectively the polar opposite of the Downey and Cumberbatch depictions, in that he mostly keeps his brilliant deductive thoughts to himself and seems reluctant to stand up to his brother, Mycroft. But rather than conveying an older and softer Holmes like the characterization in Doyle's later stories, the difference instead seems to come down to Sherlock being younger, less established and therefore less arrogant in Enola Holmes. His people skills still leave a lot to be desired; he completely fails to recognize Enola when she meets him at the train station, and when he confronts Edith at the tea shop she points out that he has no friends at all and only cares about his "strange occupation." Inspector Lestrade also notes that Holmes "always works alone."

The Conan Doyle Estate's complaint doesn't appear to hold much water - at least, not when it comes to literary analysis. It relies on an interpretation of the character of Sherlock Holmes which rigidly argues that he only displayed emotion in the still-copyrighted works. It even goes so far as to say that in the public domain works, "To Holmes, Watson was utilitarian - to be employed when useful, then set aside. Holmes did not treat Watson with warmth." This, despite the fact that from the early stories Holmes referred to his companion as "my dear Watson" so frequently that it became his catchphrase. The Hound of the Baskervilles, published in 1902, is littered with endearments like "my dear fellow" and sees Sherlock introduce John as "my friend, Dr. Watson." That quote alone could be used to dismiss the claim that Sherlock only became capable of friendship from 1923 onwards.

As of Enola Holmes' release on Netflix in September 2020, the lawsuit is still ongoing.

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