On December 16th, Sherlock Holmes is back in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” This time around Holmes is faced with an enemy that is his intellectual equal but with a capacity of evil that could have an advantage over him.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law returns as Dr. Watson, bringing the same chemistry that was displayed on the first movie. “The goal is to make a well written scene seem like it’s improvised” said Downey Jr. at a recent press junket. When asked about the challenge of recreating the character to give it a new light he says, “I respect the guy [Holmes more and more. There’s so much to learn, and I think the greatest disguise is disguising ourselves as consummate professionals when in fact, we are all incredibly eccentric.”

Joining them, in her first English-speaking role, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace plays a mysterious Gypsy named Sim and Jared Harris plays the notorious Professor Moriarty. After just learning English three years ago, Rapace's debut in her first Hollywood film makes her feel “extremely grateful and proud.” She explained that for previous movies she did a lot of research and preparation, but for this one she didn’t know she was working on it until two weeks before it started shooting. She described the whole process as “super intense and so much fun” but admits to being nervous. Meanwhile, Harris said that as Moriarty he had a big mountain to climb “in the sense that the character has to be a formidable problem to Sherlock Holmes character.” Downey Jr. adds, “Everything Jared Harris did in the course of making this movie was essentially thrown at him with very little time to prepare. I think what he brought back with it was something so particularly him in the essence of this character.”

Guy Ritchie returned to direct “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” and the sequel also reunited producers Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. As to why he wanted to come back into this story, work on it again, Ritchie said, “It was a cathartic experience the first time around, and an enjoyable one that we just wanted to do it again.” He shared his perspective on approaching his job, “You set out to do something and you set out to do the best that you could do and you try and cross those bridges as elegantly and creatively as you can.”

Ritchie once again collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer. A little road trip to East Slovakia to spend some time with the Roma people (Gypsies) was all they needed to get some inspiration for the music on this movie. “Hearing them play [with this virtuosity and this music, an unbelievable culture that was screaming to be heard,” said Zimmer about going straight to the source to get the inspiration for the film’s score.

“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” was written by husband and wife writing team Michele & Kieran Mulroney. In a story full of mind games and puzzles, Mr. Mulroney explains the process of writing this script, “A mystery like this is written backwards. We know what’s the answer to the mystery but we have to hide it. So you start at the end, then go backwards and it’s the things that you find along that journey that turn into the mind games and clues.”

Is Sherlock Holmes 3 something we should expect any time soon? “With Sherlock there’s an opportunity to continue. I think this is a character that can survive in so many ways. We are even talking of taking the next one completely to America. There are so many ways the character can live and thrive, and the fact that we have this chemistry is fantastic”, were the last words by Silver at the press junket.

So all “Sherlockians” out there, for now you’ll have to do with “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”, in theaters December 16^th.