Stephen Fry to star in Sherlock Holmes 2

Stephen Fry has told the BBC that he will join Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes 2, as Sherlock’s equally brilliant brother Mycroft.

Here is a (dryly funny) excerpt of Fry’s conversation with Danny Baker on the BBC (transcribed by Bleeding Cool):

“I’m playing Mycroft in the sequel to the Sherlock Holmes film Guy Ritchie directed with Robert Downey Jr., and that sort of part is fun, but just once in a while to play a genuine all round sort of lead figure with complexity and tragedy and wit and all the sort of things that Oscar [Wilde] had was a once in a lifeftime thrill.”

Fry is not the only newcomer to Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes’ series. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star Noomi Rapace has scored the female lead role as a mysterious French gypsy.

In the sequel to the hit 2009 film, Sherlock Holmes will face off against his (as yet uncast) arch-nemesis Moriarty.

Sherlock Holmes 2 begins shooting later this year, and is set to debut December 2011.

Discuss: I think Fry is the perfect ingredient for the Sherlock saga. Although the first film was very entertaining, I think it lacked some genuine wit, and merely coasted on the charm of the leads.