'Sherlock' Season 4 Release Date, Air Date Rumors, Photos, And Spoilers: Benedict Cumberbatch And Steven Moffat Hints At Return Of Moriarty As BBC Confirms Christmas Special Rumors [PHOTO]

"Sherlock" Season 4 is coming in 2016, following the standard pattern of a two year gap. The BBC has also confirmed that there will be a one off Christmas special before then.

Martin Freeman who plays Dr. Watson, was the first to hint at a one-episode special while on Alan Carr's Channel 4 talk show "Chatty Man." "Mark Gatiss may beat me up, but there is an idea for this one-off special that's such a good idea," said the actor. "As I was listening to it, I thought 'we've just got to do this.' It's a fantastic, really mouth-watering idea. But I really don't know when we are going to get to do it."

In the last few moments of season 3, it was teased that Moriarty was still alive, appearing on screens saying "Did you miss me?" 

"That was [decided] in the cutting room," said Moffat to the Digital Spy. "It was Mark [Gatiss]'s idea to get one more little blip of him, and we shot the live action shot which we hadn't done for the actual show and put that in after the credits. It was just a final little treat, really, to wind people up!"

"I can't really say what we're doing with that, but there is no last-minute whim in this," Steven Moffat told Vulture when asked about the new twist. "We've had what we're going to do with Moriarty in place from before the second season. Exactly what we're going to do. I remember talking it through with Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty. Wait and see what's going to happen."

Prior to the premiere of season 3, Moffat said in an interview that Moriarty was definitely dead. "He can't come back from that," Moffat said. "He shot himself in the face. What more do you want?"

Aparently Benedict Cumberbatch knowns what happened to Moriarty, but he is keeping quiet. 

"I casually choose to forget in order to rediscover it again a little bit," says Cumberbatch in an interview with MTV at Comic-Con 2014. "I like casually forgetting, not least because there's a lot of other traffic between then and now but also because it's more fun because it's slightly more fresh. It's a very good idea, I do remember that detail. I'm just trying not to remember it so I don't blurt it out."

Other rumors include Tom Hiddleston playing the third Holmes brother, according to Bustle. This rumor is unsubstantiated, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense in terms of the basic rules of storytelling. The two Holmes brothers Gatiss already has, have a goood chemistry together, adding a third would be unenecessarily complicated and could screw up the character dynamic already in play. 

Still, he was mentioned during the Season 3 finale by Mycroft when he was talking to Sherlock. From that bit of information, fans learned of his name: Sherrinford Holmes. From all indications, and the context of the scene, it looked like he was dead.

Another spoiler is that the show, in sticking with the books, will kill Watson's onscreen wife Mary Morstan, played by Martin Freemans real life wife Amanda Abbington.

More news and spolilers will be reported as they become available.