Warner Bros. Pictures announced in October 2011 that the first draft for Sherlock Holmes 3 is being produced with screenwriter Drew Pearce writing the script;[47] he was replaced by Justin Haythe.[48] Jude Law commented on the project in late 2013, "We had a meeting earlier this year, the three of us, and I think it's being written now. Warner Bros. have still got to agree to pay for it... I think they want to!"[49] He also said of the delay in getting into production, "I think Warner Bros. wants it, and there's a lot of want from us as a team. We want it to be better than the other two. We want to make sure it's smarter and cleverer, but in the same realm. It's a slow process. We're all busy. So getting us together to try to nail that has taken a little bit longer than we had hoped... I hate celebrating anything I've done, but I'm so proud of those films. I think it was Joel Silver who said, 'Take it out of that dusty room and put it on the street'."[50]
In October 2014, Susan Downey stated that a third film was in development: "There's an idea, there's an outline, there is not a script yet. Trust me, the studio would love there to be a script. But our feeling is, we gotta get it right." When asked whether the film would realistically be out within the "next few years", she expressed confidence that it would be, saying, "Yeah. At a certain point it's going to be too long— we've waited too long. We're working as fast and responsibly as we can to get a great script."[51]
In May 2015, when asked of the progress of the third film in an interview, Jude Law stated: "There is apparently still a will [to do it], there is a script being written, but I'm not sure."[52]
On August 5, 2015, while promoting Ritchie's film The Man from U.N.C.L.E., producer Lionel Wigram said that a script for a third film is still being written. Wigram also claimed that both Downey, Jr. and Law would reprise their roles from the first two film