Anticipation is high for the upcoming third season of the excellent BBC series Sherlock, and production on the three-episode season recently got underway in the UK.  Though the episodes won’t begin to air until this coming winter, executive producer Mark Gatiss has taken to Twitter to reveal the title of the first episode and, subsequently, plot details have also surfaced by way of the Arthur Conan Doyle source material for the story.  Since I know not everyone is completely caught up with season two of Sherlock (you should really get on that), I’ll leave the spoilerish material until after the jump.

If you haven’t yet seen season two of Sherlock, be warned that you will be very much spoiled if you keep reading.

Again, massive spoilers for Sherlock season two lurk below.  Continue at your own risk.

Gatiss unveiled the following image on his Twitter early Monday morning along with the caption:

“Exclusive! Ep 1 will be called ‘The Empty Hearse’. The game is on! #Sherlock”

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Metro adds that the first episode of season three will indeed be based on the original Doyle story The Adventure Of The Empty House, which explains the return of Sherlock following his apparent demise.  If you’ll remember, the finale of season two found Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock faking his death following a confrontation with Moriarty, with Martin Freeman’s Watson mourning the loss of his dear friend.  Doyle’s Empty House chronicles Holmes’ miraculous survival, and Gatiss previously spoke fondly about the story and its explanation for Holmes’ fate:

“There’s certain things about The Adventure of the Empty House which feel set in stone because that’s how Sherlock comes back, but at the same time we feel free to invent and to introduce new stuff to it.”

Doyle’s Empty House is also noteworthy for introducing the villain Sebastian Moran, but obviously specific plot details for the episode are being kept firmly under wraps so we don't know if Moran will be a part of Sherlock or not.  Jeremy Lovering is directing this first installment of the third season, taking over for Sherlock seasons one and two director Paul McGuigan who is busy prepping a feature film adaptation of Frankenstein at Fox.

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