Henry Cavill Set To Play Yet Another New Take On Sherlock Holmes

Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo in The Man From UNCLE

When you break it down, it's crazy how many iterations of Sherlock Holmes we've seen crop up on both the big and small screen in the last 10 years. While the character never really ever left the public consciousness, Robert Downey Jr.'s version in Guy Ritchie's 2009 film started a brand new wave of adaptations featuring the great detective, and various film and television projects have left us with different incarnations of the caustic investigator played by Ian McKellen, Will Ferrell, Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jonny Lee Miller.

Now that particular list is growing longer, as Henry Cavill is soon to become the latest star to play Sherlock Holmes on the big screen.

Specifically he will be doing so as part of Enola Holmes - a new movie based on the book series of the same name by author Nancy Springer. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Henry Cavill will be playing Sherlock opposite Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown - who is already attached to the project playing the titular character. The two will be playing siblings in the movie, as Enola is the younger sister of both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, and is evidently a talented investigator in her own right.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer (who is making his feature debut after a long career working on the small screen), Enola Holmes will center on a mystery involving a teenager who goes missing following the murder of their father. The script is being penned by Jack Thorne, who in recent years earned acclaim for his adaptation of R.J. Palacio's novel Wonder, which came out in 2017.

Also attached to star is Helena Bonham Carter, who will be playing the matriarch of the Holmes family.

Henry Cavill, of course, is best known for playing Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman in the DC Universe, but with his future in that franchise up in the air, it's interesting to see him take on new and diverse work. His biggest upcoming project is the Netflix series The Witcher, which is an adaptation of the novel/video game franchise of the same name that has him playing the lead character, Geralt of Rivia. The show has not yet announced a release date, but production has finished and it's expected to launch on the streaming service before the end of the year.

Beyond that, he doesn't have any other big screen projects currently in the works. In 2018 he starred in both Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and David Raymond's Night Hunter, but we haven't seen him in a feature since, and he's not currently filming any.

We don't currently know when Enola Holmes is going to go into production, but with the cast starting to fall into place it may happen within the next few weeks/couple months. We here on CinemaBlend will keep your apprised of the most interesting updates - and be sure to check out our 2019 Movie Release Calendar to see what will soon be coming to a theater near you.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.