Summary

• Guy Ritchie will be returning to the Sherlock Holmes IP with a new Young Sherlock show on Prime Video.
• Due to similar plots and characters, it seems like Young Sherlock could have to compete with CBS' Einstein.
• However, despite their similarities, Young Sherlock may not face much competition if Einstein's production doesn't happen.

The Prime Video show Sherlock Holmes 3 movie has been in development for years, but the official production of the TV series Young Sherlock has been announced, marking the next entry into Ritchie’s Holmesian oeuvre.

Starring Hero Fiennes Tiffin as the titular detective, Young Sherlock takes audiences back to when the character is 19 years old. Still living with his parents (played by Natasha McElhone and Tiffin’s real-life uncle Joseph Fiennes), the young adult Sherlock Holmes is tasked with solving a major murder mystery at Oxford. Though the premise for the Young Sherlock sounds intriguing, it resembles another show from CBS.

CBS' Einstein Sounds Suspiciously Similar To Amazon's Young Sherlock

Both Einstein and Young Sherlock Feature Young Prodigies

Young Sherlock seems similar in concept to the CBS show Einstein. Adapting the German series of the same name, Einstein’s development from Monk creatives Andy Breckman and Randy Zisk was announced earlier this week. Its plot focuses on the young adult great-grandson of Albert Einstein, who, after getting into some antics, is tasked with working with police officers to solve high-profile crimes.

The German version of Einstein ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2019.

With both focusing on young prodigies who solve crimes, the basic plots of Einstein and Young Sherlock are similar. The premises both see their youthful protagonists initially biting off a little more than they can chew, despite their inherently high aptitudes. Einstein and Young Sherlock do have some differences like being set in different cities. However, their procedural structures and similarly drawn protagonists will easily make the two series have tough competition with one another.

Einstein's Troubled Production Means It May Not Actually Happen

This is Not the First Time CBS has Tried to Adapt Einstein

Young Sherlock may not have to worry too much, as Einstein’s production is far from guaranteed. After the 2017 debut of the German series, NBC was the first network to plan an adaptation of the series back in 2018. A year later, Brickman and Zisk developed a version of the series at CBS, which never got off the ground. In 2020, the network also proposed a gender-swapped version of Einstein that would give a more nuanced take on the police, responding to George Floyd’s murder and resultant protests.

Thus, this most recent version of Einstein is the third time that CBS alone has attempted to make Einstein. Without a main cast or shooting start date announced, Einstein is still so far in the early stages that it could fall victim to the same fate as the previous attempts to remake the German show. Young Sherlock and Einstein's similar premises could make them rivals, but their competition depends on both series actually happening in the first place.