Hartswood Films/ShutterstockEvery timeless hero needs a timeless villain. Batman has the Joker, Clarice Starling has Hannibal Lecter, and Luke Skywalker has Darth Vader. But in the world of literature, one villain stands above the rest in terms of cunning, memorability, and unpredictability: Professor James Moriarty, the longtime nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty has appeared onscreen in countless forms, but a new show will give him something he’s never had. For the first time, the Napoleon of Crime will step out of Sherlock Holmes’ shadow and take on a mystery of his own. According to Deadline, Fremantle and Archery Pictures are collaborating on Moriarty, a new British TV series following the cunning crime lord as he steps to the other side of the law. The series will be written by BBC journalist-turned-screenwriter Chris Cornwell and Oliver Lansey, creator of the German-language series Where’s Wanda? This series will be a modern adaptation, much like the BBC series Sherlock. | Hartswood Films/ShutterstockMoriarty is described as a “modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the most famous villain in all of detective fiction.” There’s also a surprisingly detailed plot summary: “Moriarty is a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University but leads a secret double life as the mastermind behind every crime of sophistication in the North of England. When a rival criminal begins an assault on his underground empire, Moriarty will have only one choice: to join the police as a consultant, using the law as a weapon to dismantle his foe while keeping his true identity hidden from the police. Paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a stoic Yorkshire detective, they’ll form a fearsome team, but Moriarty will soon realize that the real threat isn’t the rival criminal faction he’s dismantling.” There’s no word of casting yet, but whoever plays the role will join an esteemed group of actors who have faced off against Sherlock. Nowadays, most viewers probably think of Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty with an eerie creepiness in Steven Moffat’s BBC Sherlock series, but the role has also been memorably played by Jared Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Dónal Finn, and Natalie Dormer, among many others.Moriarty, often portrayed as the only criminal who can outsmart Sherlock Holmes, has been depicted in countless Sherlock adaptations, including unusual ones like Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Gnomes, and multiple episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But he rarely takes a lead role by himself. The only recent example has been Moriarty, an Audible original starring Lost and Lord of the Rings’ Dominic Monaghan, which portrays Moriarty as an innocent man. The Moriarty of this new series may still be just as devious as usual, but it sounds like he’ll be no hero... even if viewers find themselves rooting for him.