Guy Ritchie hasn’t said he’s making a new Sherlock Holmes movie, but the first two were a lot of fun and they tend to do well every time they resurface on streaming. It seems like it should just be a matter of time before Warner Bros. decides that it wants to make a third one and write whatever kind of massive check it will require to put Robert Downey Jr. back in the deerstalker hat — metaphorically, at least, because Downey’s Holmes doesn’t wear a deerstalker. Ritchie’s more recent attempts to go a little lighthearted with his particular brand of toff guy action movies have been shakier than his more serious movies, but making a new Sherlock Holmes would likely help get things back on track for him — especially if he reunites with Alan Ritchson, one of the stars of his action-comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was decidedly a flop on release in 2024, making under $30 million worldwide, but it was well-received by both critics and audiences. Loosely (loooosely) inspired by real events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is about a British special-ops team in World War II, sort of like if G.I. Joe was English and based on a true-ish story. There’s nothing immediately unlikable about that, so it’s hard to figure out what to blame the box office failure on, but it’s probably not the cast’s fault (in addition to Ritchson, it featured Henry Golding, Cary Elwes, and ex-Superman Henry Cavill). Maybe it was the title, which is a pain to both say and type.

Why Does Alan Ritchson Need To Be in ‘Sherlock Holmes 3’?

Ritchson is best known these days as the star of Prime Video’s Reacher, where he plays a former military guy who now spends his time traveling the U.S. and solving problems by being extremely strong, clever, and generally awesome. He’s also been circling superhero roles for basically his whole career, playing Aquaman on Smallville and Hawk (of Hawk and Dove semi-fame) on Titans, so it’s just a matter of time before he gets snatched up to play some buff dude in either the MCU or the new DCU. He was born to be an action hero, and that means Ritchie should lock him down fast before he gets fitted for a Batsuit and is stuck in cape movies for the foreseeable future.

Better yet, he could play a new kind of villain for Downey’s Sherlock and Jude Law’s Dr. Watson to face. There’s never been a physically unbeatable antagonist at the center of Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, with Mark Strong’s Lord Blackwood having pseudo-magic powers and Jared Harris playing evil super-genius Professor Moriarty. As we’ve pitched in a previous article, it would be cool to see Sherlock face a threat like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, who is both smart and strong — especially since Guy Ritchie’s take on Sherlock is already a little like Batman, with the gadgets and fisticuffs. Hell, have Ritchson do a funny voice and break Sherlock’s back over his knee while we’re at it.