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A former army doctor, Holmes's partner and the chronicler of his cases. Here he is a war veteran who likes a bet, can handle himself in a fight and has more of a life of his own than usual. He is engaged to Mary Morstan. Jude Law plays the character, created by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Jude Law was cast opposite Downey, and the film gives Watson more action and more personality than usual. He is the practical one of the pair: steady hands, gambles more than he should and finds his partner exhausting without ever leaving him.
In the first film Watson is engaged to Mary Morstan and packing, tired of sharing a flat with Holmes's mess. The Blackwood case pulls him back. He helps crack it, but makes clear the wedding comes first.
In the second film the wedding goes ahead, but the honeymoon turns into a chase: Moriarty's men ambush the couple on the train, and Holmes throws Mary from the carriage into a river to save her. Furious, Watson follows his friend through Paris and Germany, where he brings down a watchtower with a cannon.
Watson is in Switzerland when Holmes and Moriarty face off. He helps stop the assassination at the conference and reaches the balcony too late: Holmes and Moriarty have already gone over the falls. What Watson learns afterward is left for the film.
Watson narrates nearly every case in Conan Doyle's books. Mary Morstan first appears in The Sign of the Four (1890), where her romance with Watson begins.
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