Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss appears to have ruled out an appearance from any more classic villains in Sherlock Series 3.

Fans have been speculating that Colonel Sebastian Moran or Charles Augustus Milverton may be next in line to cause trouble.

However Gatiss told the Radio Times that he is keen to create new villains.

He said: “Doyle got it right first time, he invented the supervillain. All great heroes have their Moriarty and after that you have to be very clever about trying to come up with someone who’s the equivalent otherwise they just look like a watered down version, so it’s about telling different kinds of stories.”

Gatiss also explained that the opening story, based on Doyle’s The Empty House, will not see Sherlock disguised like he was in the novel before revealing himself to Watson.

“We made a decision right from the get-go that he would not do disguise in the traditional sense,” said Gatiss. “He actually has a line in [series one finale] the Great Game which is ‘The art of disguise is knowing how to hide in plain sight’ and that was because, right from the start, I thought modern day Sherlock Holmes would not put putty noses on, he would basically be standing behind you now and you wouldn’t know he was there. Ben [Cumberbatch] has put on various costumes but it’s more about being invisible.”