Stephen Fry revealed this morning on Danny Baker’s radio
show on BBC’s 5 Live that he will play Mycroft in Warner Bros. Sherlock Holmes 2. Mycroft is Sherlock Holmes’ older brother (by seven
years).
Possessing deductive powers exceeding even those Sherlock, Mycroft is
nonetheless incapable of performing similar detective work as he is unwilling
to put in the physical effort necessary to bring cases to their conclusions. It’s
unclear what his position is in the British government. “I’m playing Mycroft in the sequel to the Sherlock Holmes
film Guy Ritchie directed with Robert Downey Jr., and that sort of part is fun,
but just once in a while to play a genuine all round sort of lead figure with
complexity and tragedy and wit and all the sort of things that Oscar [Wilde]
had was a once in a lifeftime thrill,” Fry said.
Fry is joining Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and the
recently-cast Noomi Rapace in the Guy Ritchie-directed sequel, scheduled for a
December 16, 2011 release.