The wild reason Netflix is being sued over Enola Holmes

Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, and Helena Bonham Carter, Enola Holmes premiered on Netflix earlier this month. The movie is based on The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer and, more broadly, the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the original creator of Sherlock Holmes.

The movie chronicles the life of Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown), the younger sister of an already famous Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill). Enola is free-spirited, intelligent, and creative, but she doesn’t know her brothers Sherlock and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) very well since they are so much older than her.

On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Enola awakens to discover that her mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), has disappeared. When she discovers that Mycroft plans on sending her away to finishing school, Enola sets out to find her mother and helps some unexpected friends along the way.

The movie is fun and engaging, but apparently, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does not agree. According to The Verge, Netflix is being sued for violating specifications in Doyle’s copyright of Sherlock Holmes.

Why is Netflix being sued over Enola Holmes?

Copyright law and its tenets can be confusing, so let me break down what’s going on.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there have been legal battles over the character of Sherlock Holmes before. Writer Leslie Klinger filed a lawsuit against the Doyle Estate in 2013 while preparing a collection of short stories penned by modern authors inspired by Doyle’s original works. Even though Doyle’s estate claimed that creating new iterations of Sherlock would besmirch the character, the judge ultimately ruled that Sherlock Holmes is public domain.

There have been a lot of modern incarnations of Sherlock Holmes: Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, and Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes, just to name a few.

In the case of Enola Holmes, Doyle’s estate is postulating that the film alters Sherlock’s personality so much that monetary compensation is required. Apparently, Sherlock’s established personality traits are included in the character’s copyright, but new ones are not.

The personality trait Doyle’s estate is taking issue with is the fact that in Enola Holmes, Sherlock acts with kindness and warmth towards his sister, something that the typically aloof character has never before exhibited. Doyle’s estate is suing Netflix, Nancy Springer, her publisher Penguin Random House, and the film’s production company.

That’s honestly pretty wild, and I wonder who will win the case. Netflix might have plenty of money to burn, but Doyle’s estate has years of practice at suing people over Sherlock’s integrity. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens!

To read why we still think Sherlock is a brilliant character in the new Netflix movie, click here.