‘Moriarty’ TV series in the works as Sherlock Holmes character gets standalone drama

Sherlock Holmes’ infamous nemesis Professor James Moriarty is officially getting his own television series, with Fremantle and Archery Pictures developing a new contemporary crime drama centred on the iconic villain.

According to Variety, the project is currently using the working title Moriarty and will reimagine the classic Arthur Conan Doyle character as a criminal mastermind operating in modern-day northern England.

The official synopsis describes Moriarty as a professor of criminal psychology at Durham University who secretly controls “every crime of sophistication in the North of England”. However, when a rival criminal faction threatens his empire, he is forced to work alongside police in an effort to eliminate the competition while concealing his own criminal identity.

The series will reportedly pair Moriarty with Detective Imogen Burrows, a Yorkshire investigator who gradually becomes suspicious of him as they begin solving cases together.

Archery Pictures founders Chris Carey and Tom Harper are attached as executive producers, with Harper best known for directing projects including Heart of Stone and Peaky Blinders. The series is being produced in association with Fremantle, which continues expanding its scripted television slate internationally.

The announcement arrives amid a renewed boom in Sherlock Holmes-inspired television series. Recent years have seen multiple reinterpretations of Conan Doyle’s world, including Prime Video’s Young Sherlock, CBS’ Watson, and The CW’s Sherlock & Daughter.

Moriarty himself has become one of the franchise’s most enduring characters across film and television, with memorable portrayals from actors including Andrew Scott in the BBC’s Sherlock. Scott’s performance in particular helped redefine the villain for modern audiences as unpredictable, charismatic and psychologically dangerous.

No casting announcements or release timeline have yet been revealed for Moriarty, though the project is already generating strong interest among fans of crime dramas and Sherlock Holmes adaptations.