The two Sherlock’s co-stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch will be the new Richard III.

Two weeks ago  it was announced that Benedict Cumberbatch would playing Hamlet in a West End production next season at Barbican.

Few days after, his Sherlock’s co-star Martin Freeman was announced as Richard III for the new Jamie Lloyd‘s production (last year he produced the great Macbeth with James McAvoy) at Trafalgar Studios.

Actors who have previously played the lead in Richard III include Kevin Spacey, Sir Laurence Olivier, Mark Rylance, Sir Ian McKellen and Robert Lindsay.

So far nothing special except that, after a couple of days, also Benedict Cuberbatch was cast to play Richard III, but in this case, on the television screen for BBC 2.

Martin Freeman’s stage career includes Bruce Norris‘s satire Clybourne Park at the Royal Court in 2010;  Blue Eyes and Heels at Soho theatre in 2005, Jump Mr Malinoff, Jump, the opening production at the new Soho theatre in 2000 and A Going Concern by Stephen Jeffreys at the Stephen Joseph theatre in 1996.

Benedict Cumberbatch instead is to play the role of Richard III in a BBC production of William Shakespeare’s retelling of the Wars of the Roses. Along the Richard part, to complete the series there will be a two parts Henry VI . They will be directed by Dominic Cooke, former artistic director of the Royal Court theatre, where Cumberbatch appeared in Martin Crimp’s play The City in 2008.

The Richard chapter will be on screen at the same time that Martin is on stage.

This new series comes from Neal Street Productions (BAFTA winner for their last historical Shakespeare collection, The Hollow Crown with Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons).

Cumberbatch said: “I can’t wait to work with Dominic Cooke again to bring this complex, funny and dangerous character to life for the BBC and Neal Street Productions’s peerless series of Shakespeare’s history plays”.

Who will win audience’s heart?