It’s been a full decade since Robert Downey Jr.’s last Sherlock Holmes movie, A Game of Shadows, hit theaters, but now that the actor is free of his commitments to Marvel, he’ll finally be reprising his role as the iconic Victorian-era detective in a third movie. Guy Ritchie, the director of the first two movies, has been replaced without warning by Rocketman’s Dexter Fletcher.
While Warner Bros. arguably should’ve brought back Ritchie to continue his own series of big-screen mysteries, Fletcher is a promising choice. He’ll surely do a great job with the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and Rocketman’s greatest moments prove it.
Fletcher Is Promising: Rocketman Was Visually Stunning
With its blend of real-life events and awe-inspiring fantasy sequences, Rocketman is quite possibly the most visually stunning musical biopic ever made. The scene with Elton John’s first performance at the Troubadour, floating away from the piano as he plays “Crocodile Rock” for an audience going wild is eye-popping.
Fletcher can bring this same command of spectacular visuals to the third Sherlock Holmes movie, this time with more action and fewer record label meetings.
Ritchie Should’ve Returned: He Defined The Franchise’s Visual Style
The signature gloomy aesthetic of Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes movies was defined by Guy Ritchie’s directorial work on the first two movies.
Anyone who’s tapped to replace him for the third one, even a visionary like Fletcher, is really being hired to emulate Ritchie’s style, and no one will be able to replicate that style better than Ritchie himself.
Fletcher Is Promising: He Already Salvaged Another Director’s Vision
When disgraced director Bryan Singer stepped down from Bohemian Rhapsody, Dexter Fletcher was tapped to finish the movie. The editing is certainly inconsistent — as with any movie that changes hands between directors — but Fletcher did as good a job as anyone could’ve expected.
He managed to successfully unify Singer’s incomplete vision and his own vision for the Freddie Mercury story. He can do the same with Ritchie’s established vision of Sherlock Holmes and pair it with his own take.
Ritchie Should’ve Returned: Downey And Law Have An Established Rapport With Him
In their first two Sherlock Holmes movies, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law shared brilliant on-screen chemistry in the roles of Holmes and Watson, and their buddy dynamic was defined by Guy Ritchie’s directorial hand.
Downey and Law developed a strong rapport with Ritchie during the making of those two movies. They’ll undoubtedly forge a similarly strong working relationship with Fletcher, but they’ve already got one with Ritchie.
Fletcher Is Promising: His Films Tend To Focus On Character
The most important element of a Sherlock Holmes movie isn’t the mystery — although that is, of course, very significant — it’s the dynamic shared by Holmes and Watson. Dexter Fletcher’s directorial credits have all demonstrated his ability to tell character-driven stories.
From the parolee at the heart of Wild Bill to the subjects of biopics Eddie the Eagle and Rocketman, Fletcher has made a bunch of in-depth character studies.
Ritchie Should’ve Returned: He Brought Plenty Of Humor To The Previous Movies
Ritchie’s movies have always been marked by a healthy dose of humor. Lock, Stock and Snatch are primarily crime movies, but they’re so funny that they’re often ranked among the greatest British comedies ever made.
In the last two Sherlock Holmes movies, there were a lot of gags to break up the tension of the mystery plots. Downey and Law’s dry delivery fit right in with the rest of the comedy in the Ritchie oeuvre.
Fletcher Is Promising: A Lot Of His Movies Are About Double Acts
Holmes and Watson are one of the most iconic double acts in all of literature, and getting their friendship right is key to making a Sherlock Holmes movie work.
A lot of Dexter Fletcher’s movies have revolved around memorable double acts, like Eddie the Eagle and Bronson Peary or Elton John and Bernie Taupin, so Holmes and Watson are in safe hands.
Ritchie Should’ve Returned: His Action Scenes Are Spectacular
While Dexter Fletcher has proven himself to be a capable filmmaker, he hasn’t directed much action, so it’s unclear if the action in Sherlock Holmes 3 will be able to live up to the previous two installments.
With visceral cinematography, clarity of movement, and well-placed moments of slow-motion, Ritchie’s action scenes in the first two Sherlock Holmes movies were all awesome.
Fletcher Is Promising: He’s Worked With Ritchie
There might be no replacing Ritchie in the director’s chair of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, but Fletcher has a better idea than most of how Ritchie directs because he’s worked with him before as an actor.
More than a decade before making his directorial debut, Fletcher appeared alongside Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones in Ritchie’s own directorial debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
Ritchie Should’ve Returned: He Left Unresolved Storylines In A Game Of Shadows
While the third Sherlock Holmes movie ended up being delayed for years, A Game of Shadows ended with a couple of tantalizing cliffhangers. The most obvious is that Holmes was supposedly killed and revealed himself to have survived the fall, unbeknownst to Watson.
At the time Ritchie was making A Game of Shadows, he surely would’ve had an idea for how these storylines would wrap up in future movies. If another filmmaker takes his place, audiences might end up with retcons and inconsistencies.