Moriarty takes centre stage in bold new Sherlock-inspired crime drama

Dubai: Forget the detective. The real interesting one was always the villain.

For decades, James Moriarty has lurked at the edges of every Sherlock Holmes story, the shadowy genius pulling strings from behind the curtain, the man so brilliant that the world's greatest detective considered him his only true equal. Audiences have always known it. Now, television has finally caught up.

Fremantle and Archery Pictures, the production company behind Operation Mincemeat and Fate: The Winx Saga, have announced they are developing Moriarty (working title), a modern crime drama that reimagines one of fiction's most famous villains as a fully realised protagonist.

The series is written by Chris Cornwell, who previously worked on A Discovery of Witches, alongside Oliver Lansley of Where's Wanda? and Flack.

The premise so far

Moriarty is reimagined as a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University, leading a secret double life as the mastermind behind every sophisticated crime in the North of England.

When a rival criminal mounts an assault on his underground empire, he has only one choice: join the police as a consultant, using the law as a weapon to dismantle his foe while keeping his true identity hidden. He is paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a sharp Yorkshire detective whose suspicions about her new partner grow increasingly difficult to ignore.

It is, in short, a villain procedural, and it sounds like exactly the kind of dark, witty drama the Sherlock Holmes universe has been waiting to produce.

Who could play Moriarty?

No casting or viewing platform have been announced yet, though the role comes with a rich and fascinating history on screen.

Andrew Scott's portrayal in the BBC's Sherlock is widely considered the defining modern version of the character, his manic energy and unpredictable menace making him one of the most talked-about television villains of the last two decades. Before him, Jared Harris brought chilling intelligence to the role in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Natalie Dormer played a reimagined version in CBS's Elementary.

More recently, Dónal Finn plays him in Prime Video's Young Sherlock, while Randall Park takes on the role in CBS's Watson. Whoever steps into the role for this new series will have significant shoes to fill.

What the producers are saying

Kris Thykier, founder of Archery Pictures, described the show as combining "genre thrills with a playful, dark, and thrilling dive into the psychology of villainy."

Fremantle's Rebecca Dundon, SVP of Scripted Content, said the project offers "a fresh spin on the procedural crime format with an unconventionally brilliant protagonist at the heart who will constantly surprise and frustrate viewers in a highly entertaining manner."

The copyright in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories lapsed in its entirety on January 1, 2023, opening the door for exactly this kind of bold reimagining without licensing restrictions.

Fremantle is handling global sales, and with no network yet attached, the series is likely to attract considerable interest from streaming platforms. A

Moriarty who is both the hero and the villain of his own story is a compelling pitch. The question now is who will play him.