The wait for season three of the BBC series Sherlock just got considerably tougher.  Series creators/showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss just revealed three tantalizing key words for the upcoming season, giving Sherlock fans a hint as to what classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories the show may be pulling from in season three.  The modern spin on the Sherlock Holmes character debuted in 2010 to a wildly positive response.  The chemistry between Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s Watson is dynamite, and Moffat and Gatiss have thus far cooked up six 90-minute episodes of some of the most entertaining and enthralling television we’ve seen in quite a long while.

Season two came to a close with one hell of a conclusion/cliffhanger, and Moffat and Gatiss have now spoken up to tease what’s to come in the show’s third season (which will likely debut in fall 2013).  Hit the jump to see what they had to say.  

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The three words used to tease audiences for season two were “Woman, Hound, Fall,” which of course referred to the inclusion of Irene Adler in the first episode, The Hound of the Baskervilles in the second episode, and The Reichenebach Fall in the finale.  Speaking at the Edinburgh TV festival today (via Deadline), Moffat teased the following three key words for season three: Rat, Wedding, Bow.

Keen Sherlock Holmes fans will recognize that these words could be hinting that the three stories told in the third season will be The Giant Rat of Sumatra (which was never actually expanded into a full story by Doyle), The Noble Bachelor, and His Last Bow.  The latter was the final chronological installment of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, so this could indeed be a hint that the third season of Sherlock may be the last.  This wouldn’t be entirely shocking, as production for the show takes up a considerable amount of time and Moffat also has to balance running Doctor Who.

Moreover, Cumberbatch and Freeman have understandably become much more in demand since the debut of Sherlock.  The two are poised to be launched into the mainstream in the near future, as Cumberbatch will be seen as the villain in Star Trek 2 and Freeman leads Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy as Biblo Baggins.  Cumberbatch also “appears” in The Hobbit as the voice of the dragon Smaug.

Moffat and Gatiss revealed that production on season three of Sherlock is poised to begin in January and is expected to return in fall 2013 (possibly August).  Past seasons have aired in the UK first, followed a few months later by the American broadcast.

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