The Big Picture
- Dr. John Watson is making a comeback without Sherlock Holmes in a new CBS medical drama.
- Morris Chestnut will portray Watson in a modern-day series set one year after Holmes’ death, as he runs a clinic for rare diseases.
- The new series will reimagine the characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s works and share similarities with CBS’ previous show, Elementary. Craig Sweeny, creator of Elementary, will also executive produce this new series.
Sherlock and Elementary may be off the air, but Dr. John Watson is about to return to the small screen — without his partner Sherlock Holmes. Morris Chestnut will play Watson in a new medical drama for CBS. Variety reports that Chestnut will play Watson in a new series set in the modern day, also titled Watson. It will take place one year after Holmes’ death, courtesy of his archfoe, Professor Moriarty. Watson has returned to his medical profession, and now heads a clinic that treats rare diseases.
However, Watson’s past soon comes back to haunt him, in a reimagining of the characters originally created by Arthur Conan Doyle. The series has been in the works for some time, and was reported as being in development back in 2022. The series will share some creative DNA with Elementary, CBS’ previous stab at the Holmes mythology; Craig Sweeny, who created that series, will also executive produce this one. It will be a return to TV medicine for The Best Man star Chestnut; he starred as pathologist Dr. Beaumont Rosewood on Fox’s Rosewood, which ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2007, and played neurosurgeon Dr. Barrett Cain for two seasons on The Resident.
Who is John Watson?
Dr. John Watson, a medical doctor and a veteran of Britain’s 19th-century war with Afghanistan, was created as Sherlock Holmes’ closest friend, confidant, and crime-solving partner by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet; he went on to appear in nearly all of Doyle’s subsequent Holmes stories and novels. The classic 1940s Sherlock Holmes films starred the suave, debonair Basil Rathbone as Holmes; he was contrasted with Nigel Bruce, who played Watson as clumsy, absent-minded, and several steps behind his more intellectual partner. Bruce’s portrayal, although not an accurate reflection of Doyle’s character, has lingered in pop culture, and many subsequent Watsons have labored in the shadows of it. Over the years, Watson has been portrayed by a number of noted actors, including Robert Duvall, James Mason, and Ben Kingsley. In Guy Ritchie‘s 2009 Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, A Game of Shadows, he is presented as a man of action, as portrayed by Jude Law. The BBC Sherlock series moves the characters into the modern day, and emphasizes Watson (Martin Freeman) as a military veteran. The aforementioned Elementary recasts the character as Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu, who attempts to help her partner, Johnny Lee Miller‘s Holmes, manage his own vices.
Craig Sweeny created the series and will showrun and executive produce. Chestnut will executive produce, as will Shäron Moalem, Aaron Kaplan, and Brian Morewitz for Kapital Entertainment; Larry Teng (Runaways, Nancy Drew, So Help Me Todd) will also executive produce, and will direct the first episode.
Morris Chestnut’s Watson series is expected to premiere during the 2024-25 TV season. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
