Stephen Fry – Sherlock’s brother in ‘Sherlock Holmes 2′

Stephen Fry has signed on to play Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother in Sherlock Holmes 2 from director Guy Ritchie. Returning to the role of the World’s Greatest Detective is Robert Downey, Jr., who breathed new life into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character almost one year ago. Jude Law also returns as Dr. Watson. As of yet, there has been nothing released on who will be stepping into the role of Moriarty, who made himself known in the first entry, but was never actually seen.

As for Mycroft, the character was not a mainstay in the Holmes legacy, but he did appear in a few of the original stories. Holmes always saw his elder brother as lazily brilliant, the kind of man who lacked the ambition to prove his theories correct, even though they often were. From the original stories, Holmes describes his brother in the following manner:

“Again and again I have taken a problem to him, and have received an explanation which has afterwards proved to be the correct one. And yet he was absolutely incapable of working out the practical points…”

For the folks at Slashfilm, who brought us this little nugget of casting greatness, Fry is the perfect individual for the role, and it will be a treat watching him verbally joust with Downey, Jr. With his work on Bones and V for Vendetta, we have a tendency to share in that excitement.

Watch for Sherlock Holmes 2 to hit theaters December 16, 2011.

Editors note: if you’re a fan of the Holmes mythos, check out a cool feature on the new BBC miniseries, Sherlock, which asks the question if the iconic sleuth is fallible and is the ultimate what if? feature. A weekly feature, the first two episodes have been put to the test thus far over at Gestalt Mash.