"Sherlock" fans will have a reason to rejoice the coming of the new year as it has been confirmed that January 1, 2016 will be the official release date of the first episode of the show's fourth season.

According to a post by @sherlock221B on Twitter, the first episode to be aired is entitled "The Six Thatchers," while the second episode is entitled "The Lying Detective." However, the title for the third and final episode is yet to be revealed, perhaps to keep the suspense among viewers of the show.

The fourth season promises to be an exciting one mainly because it has been a while since fans of the show have seen Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman together as the crime-solving duo of Sherlock and Watson due to their busy filming schedules. The Hollywood careers of both actors have taken off since the show's first season.

In an interview, Cumberbatch described the feel of the upcoming season. "It feels like the end of an era, to be honest," to which fans were quick to conclude that season 4 will be the last for the series. He further added that series 4 "goes to a place where it will be pretty hard to follow on immediately."

The actor later clarified that continuing the series is still a possibility and that his words were taken out of context, leaving fans heaving a huge sigh of relief.

"I'd love to revisit it, I'd love to keep revisiting it, I stand by that, but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we've made something very complete as it is, so I think we'll just wait and see. The idea of never playing (Sherlock) again is really galling," he said.

While showrunners Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss promised that season 4 will be darker than its predecessors, they also said that there will be a lot of jokes thrown in for good measure to balance out the season.

Veteran actor Toby Jones has been cast as Culverton Smith — who will serve as the season's main villain — while either Tom Hiddleston or Sam Heughan have allegedly been cast as Sherrinford Holmes, Sherlock and Mycroft's smarter and more evil older brother, reported Parent Herald.