In the run-up to the release of 2009’s Sherlock Holmes, a lot of media attention focused on the homo-bromantic relationship between Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson. Now that the trailer has dropped for the sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, it’s clear that if anything, director Guy Ritchie is going to lean into that perception. (And they always said he had a problem with Madonna’s gay friends!) Like in the first film, Holmes and Watson are again bickering like a married couple — though Watson himself is an actual newlywed in this installment — but there’s also more man-on-man spooning (?!), bare-chested bravado, and an extended action set piece carried out while Holmes is apparently in messy drag. There’s also Sherlock’s famous archrival Moriarty (played by Mad Men’s Jared Harris), who gets about a millisecond of screen time, as well as Noomi Rapace’s mysterious gypsy, who gets a little bit more. In fact, the real mystery here might be how Swedish actress Rapace managed above-the-title billing in her first high-profile American film while Harris goes unsung. Their lawyers may hold all the clues!
