Benedict Cumberbatch, speaking on The Nerdist podcast, seemed to imply that BBC’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes prefers the company of men.

The newly engaged actor appeared on the popular podcast The Nerdist, with presenters Chris Hardwick and Matt Mira, for an hour long conversation about The Imitation Game, Sherlock and that time he was kidnapped in South Africa.

During the podcast, Hardwick suggested that Sherlock and Doctor Who‘s The Doctor were similar characters, but Cumberbatch dispelled this idea.

“One uses a sonic screwdriver and time travel and the other uses his brain and isn’t 900 years old and isn’t reincarnated,” Cumberbatch said of the two Steven Moffat-written characters.

“He talks fast and is clever, that’s literally the only bracket they share. They’ve got different dress senses, different tastes in the sex of their partners.”

(Wait for the Johnlock fangirls to implode.)

The Doctor has married both Rose and River Song, and has a penchant for female travel companions, which would imply he is heterosexual. Whereas Sherlock seems to show no interest in male or female partners, apart from his soft-spot for John Watson. However, Sherlock has been capable of using others’ interest in him to his own advantage, as was seen in the past season with the character of Janine and then, of course, there’s Molly. (Poor Molly.)

It could also refer to their platonic partners in their respective shows.

Though Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes without any sexual interest in others, implying asexuality, Cumberbatch has previously denied that the BBC adaptation portrays Sherlock as asexual.

He told Indiewire:

I’ve had asexuals come up to me and thank me for representing asexuals. I don’t know how that came about. […] Like a lot of things in his life where he’s purposely dehumanized himself, it’s do to with not wanting the stuff that is time wasting, that’s messy. That goes for certain relationships, as well as sexual intimacy.

Sherlock and John’s chemistry and interactions seem to be written with palpable tension, sexual or otherwise, mostly for comedic effect.

Steven Moffat, who co-created the show, told the Daily Mail in 2010: “They are just incredibly good friends. If Sherlock is gay, and who knows if he is, then I don’t think he fancies John.”

Listen to the entire interview below (the Sherlock/Doctor Who conversation starts about the 36 minute mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZzsJQURujc