According to Deadline, the stars of Prime Video's upcoming origin series Young Sherlock recently opened up about their characters' complicated dynamic, with the actors behind teenage Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty explaining that their relationship is built on genuine friendship — not the bitter rivalry we know is coming.
A New Angle on the World's Most Adapted Detective
Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock is doing something genuinely interesting: it's asking audiences to root for a friendship they know is doomed. Casting Hero Fiennes Tiffin as a pre-detective Sherlock at Oxford and Dónal Finn as a Moriarty who isn't yet the antithesis of everything Holmes stands for is a bold reimagining of one of fiction's most iconic rivalries. For fans of the Holmes universe, that premise alone raises a cascade of casting questions — not just about this series, but about every version of the detective that's come before and every one that might come next.
Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most recast character in the history of filmed entertainment. From Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch to Robert Downey Jr., every generation gets its own Holmes. Which means the fancasting conversation around this franchise never really goes quiet — and Young Sherlock just turned the volume back up.
What myCast Fans Are Saying
The myCast community has been busy building out their dream versions of the Holmes universe across several stories, and the results are genuinely fascinating to dig into.
Over on the Young Sherlock story, fans have tapped Ezra Miller as their pick for the young detective with 2 votes, while Daniel Radcliffe has earned a nod for the John role — a pairing that would lean into an edgier, more unconventional take on the material. Radcliffe, interestingly, shows up in multiple Holmes fan casts across the platform, also pulling a vote for John H. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes story, suggesting fans have a consistent vision of him somewhere in this universe.
Speaking of that story, it's one of the richest on the platform for Holmes casting debate. leads the Sherlock Holmes role there with 3 votes — a pick that would deliver serious theatrical weight and dry wit in equal measure. And in what might be the most intriguing fan choice across all the Holmes stories on myCast, has earned votes for Professor Moriarty in two separate fan casts. Given that Hero Fiennes Tiffin is Ralph Fiennes' nephew in real life, there's a delicious irony in fans wanting the elder Fiennes to play the villain opposite a younger version of the character his nephew is now actually portraying on screen.