5 Characters That Should Get A Gender Swapped Adaptation (And 1 That Really Shouldn't)
3. Sherlock Holmes
The Guinness World Record holder for the human character with the most screen adaptations (there have been more Draculas, but Guinness apparently don't count vampires as people), Sherlock Holmes is more popular than ever.
Elementary just wrapped up its sixth season with presumably a seventh to come. Both the BBC's Sherlock and the Guy Ritchie film series are technically ongoing with further instalments simply awaiting the chance to draw their in demand casts away from their MCU commitments. Meanwhile, there's also the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy take released this Christmas. All in all, then, another Sherlock would have to offer something new and different to be worthwhile.
Elementary, for example, has carved itself out its own niche unique from its rivals by adding a female Watson (and Moriarty), giving the relationships a slightly different dynamic. Really, though, Holmes himself would kind of be an easier gender swap than his loyal sidekick, given the nature of the character as a largely sexless figure purely driven by intellectual curiosity.
Yes, there's some old-fashioned sexism inherent in some of the deductions made in both Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and adaptations which play up the notion of the rational masculine and emotional feminine. Having a woman in the lead role, though, would allow a new Sherlock to move beyond such unscientific thinking as an ultra-rational woman.
The past couple of decades have given us Sherlocks as diverse as mice and gnomes, so fidelity to his canonical literary identity is hardly essential after all.
Who Should Play Her?
Stepping into Brad Pitt's sharp suits with effortless cool in Ocean's 8, Cate Blanchett (who also picked up an Oscar nod for playing Bob Dylan) is an old hand at this gender swap stuff. Blanchett could completely give off the appropriate air of imperious smugness required of the great detective. There's no doubt that she could convince as the smartest person in the room and could definitely rock the tweed and deerstalker combo if required.