Sherlock's 8-Part Successor Brings The Detective Back To The Victorian Era

Published Sep 11, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

The BBC’s Sherlock’s successor has brought the Great Detective back to his right time setting, and thanks to it, it’s answering some of the biggest questions about him. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes continues to be one of the most popular and beloved literary characters, and as such, he’s still used as inspiration for movies and TV shows, and is also adapted to both film and TV. Thanks to the status of the rights to the character, adaptations of the Great Detective can get quite creative.

One of the best modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes is the BBC’s Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as John Watson. Sherlock stood out for its quality and for bringing the characters into the modern world, with Holmes using modern technology and his cases addressing modern social issues. Sherlock ended in 2017 after four seasons, and almost a decade later, it finally has a successor in Guy Ritchie’s Prime Video show Young Sherlock.

Inspired by Andrew Lane’s book series of the same name, Young Sherlock premiered in March 2026 to great success, currently holding an 84% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The success of season 1 of Young Sherlock led to Prime Video renewing the show for a second season, which, at the time of writing, doesn’t have a projected release date yet. In addition to exploring the younger years of Sherlock Holmes, Young Sherlock already does one key thing better than Sherlock and other adaptations: it’s set in the Victorian Era, just like the source material.

Young Sherlock Finally Brings The Detective Back To The Right Time Setting

As fun as it is to see Sherlock Holmes and his accompanying characters in the modern world, it’s also interesting to see his stories develop in their right time setting. Young Sherlock stays true to Conan Doyle’s stories in that sense, but it goes into a part of Holmes’ story that Conan Doyle never explored: his younger years before he became the famous detective everyone now knows.

Young Sherlock, then, follows a 19-year-old Holmes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), who has just gotten out of prison for pickpocketing. To keep him out of trouble, his brother, Mycroft (Max Irons), gets him a job at Oxford University as a scout. There, Sherlock meets brilliant student James Moriarty (Dónal Finn), with whom he forms a friendship. When Sherlock is framed for the death of a professor on campus, he and Moriarty set out to clear his name and find the real killer, but this journey leads them to uncover some disturbing secrets of the Holmes family and a deadly conspiracy.

Young Sherlock stays true to the time setting of the source material, but it adds more action (very on brand with Guy Ritchie), family drama, and a bigger case, which is quite impressive given that this is Holmes’ very first case. Young Sherlock has been praised for its pace, writing, and performances, particularly those of Fiennes and Finn, and the ending of season 1 perfectly set up a much bigger second season.

Even though Young Sherlock respects the time setting of Conan Doyle’s stories, it’s a fresh take on the Great Detective and company by exploring his first case and how he gradually became the most famous and sought-after detective, proving that modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations don’t need to bring him into the present day to succeed.

Young Sherlock Is Filling Some Blanks In The Detective’s Backstory

Thanks to its Victorian-era setting and focus on a younger Holmes investigating his first-ever case, Young Sherlock is answering some questions about the detective’s backstory. As mentioned above, Conan Doyle never went back to explore the younger years of Holmes or even his first case, so there are some questions that were never answered in canon – luckily, shows like Young Sherlock can offer some good answers.

Young Sherlock gives the audience a look into Holmes’ family and their dynamic, which is a complicated one due to a tragedy. Surely, Young Sherlock makes some changes to canon by adding a Holmes sister, but it’s a justified addition that does serve a purpose in the story. Most importantly, Young Sherlock finally shows how Holmes and Moriarty met, as well as how the latter’s villainous turn began.

Young Sherlock still has a lot more to explore in Holmes’ backstory, mostly when and how his friendship with Moriarty ended, and how his family dynamic impacted his career and methods as a detective.

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  Hero Fiennes Tiffin

  Sherlock Holmes

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  Zine Tseng

  Princess Gulun Shou’an

Guy Ritchie's new Young Sherlock series reinterprets the early life of the famous detective, portraying him as a disgraced youth drawn into a perilous murder case. Set in 1870s Oxford and beyond, the story traces his involvement in a global conspiracy that initiates his evolution into the celebrated Bakert Street sleuth.