Character page for the Enola Holmes film adaptation. For characters introduced in the sequel, see Enola Holmes 2.
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Holmes Family
Enola Holmes
Played by: Millie Bobby Brown, Sofia Stavrinou (young), Sophie Dixon (toddler)
Dubbed by: Clara Soares (European French), Isabelle Cunha (Brazilian Portuguese)
The younger sister of famous detective Sherlock Holmes and the protagonist of the story.
- Action Girl: Trained since she was a kid in several areas, including jiu-jitsu, which she puts to use when faced by an assassin and when she has to escape from people who want to capture her back.
- A-Cup Angst: Subverted; when the seamstress gives Enola's bust measurement as 33, Ms. Harrison scoffs. An offended Enola protests she's happy with her size.
- Adaptational Badass: Zigzagged: while in the books she's capable of holding her own when facing violent thugs, even keeping a knife for self-defense hidden in her corset, she was more of an Action Survivor. In the movie, she's been trained in martial arts since early childhood, although she realistically struggles to fight against grown adults twice her size. This is seen when she has to face a murderous Linthorn and almost loses.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Book Enola could disguise herself as adult women of varying social classes so convincingly that even her brothers were fooled, and solved cases that Sherlock couldn't because of her attentiveness to details that he'd dismiss as feminine and therefore illogical. While we see shades of this in film Enola, she is far more socially inept, and needs Sherlock to explain to her that even skills such as deportment can be useful for a detective.
- Age Lift: A minor example; she's 16 in the movie, while in the first book she was 14.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Sherlock and Mycroft aren't very pleased to see their sister. Mycroft even calls her a "wild child".
- Badass Bookworm: Enola is clearly smart but has also trained in martial arts from a young age, and is good enough to hold her own against multiple adults.
- Big Brother Worship: Enola has read quite a bit of her elder brother Sherlock and was excited to meet him for the first time in years. She also wanted to be taken in by him instead of Mycroft, due to his being more kind and understanding of her character.
- Brainy Brunette: She has long brown hair and has inherited her family's intelligence.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Enola's mouth moves even faster than her mind, so she's not great at keeping sensitive case details to herself.
- Disappeared Dad: The Holmes children's father passed away from unknown causes shortly after Enola was born. Enola has no memory of him whatsoever.
- Fragile Speedster: Enola does better against opponents using Hit-and-Run Tactics, surprise, and using the environment to her advantage, but being small and petite, she struggles when facing them one-on-one where her punches don't have an effect and her opponent can get a hand on her.
- Genius Bruiser: Like her brother, she's very intelligent and well-educated and a skilled fighter.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In the sequel, she shows traces of jealousy whenever other women show interest in Tewkesbury. She denies it of course.
- Kid Detective: 16 years old and already solving her first disappearance.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl, a Spirited Young Lady who resists finishing school and is trained to fight, while Tewksbury is the Feminine Boy, a rich boy who ran away from his family's plan of going off to the army, and a Nature Lover who knows his way around local flora and cooks for himself and Enola while on the run.
- Minor Living Alone: Since Sherlock is now in charge of her in the sequel, he lets her keep her own place despite being an underage girl in Victorian London. Passerby tend to be a little scandalized that she can work unsupervised.
- Practically Different Generations: She's decades younger than both of her brothers and both were already grown and pursuing their own careers when Enola was being raised, meaning they have a very distant relationship with her.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Eudoria taught Enola everything except how to talk to people. The girl has No Social Skills, confrontational in informal interactions, and hopelessly wooden in formal ones.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: She's been kept on the Holmes family estate with her mother for her entire life. While her mother taught her many things - such as thinking ability, various sports, and athletic skills - her first foray into the outside world is a bumpy one.
- Skilled, but Naive: She's book-smart, trained in self-defense, and has also been taught history and literature. But, she has no experience with the outside world, which is why Mrs. Lane fears for her when she runs away from home.
- Spirited Young Lady: She has no desire to be a Proper Lady or wife, which is a big deal in her time period. She wears dresses without corsets, dislikes hats for being itchy, hates wearing gloves, and keeps her hair loose for comfort. She also likes detective work, fighting and is extremely opinionated about real-world issues.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Enola disguises herself as a boy on the train to London, where she meets Tewkesbury. The disguise works well enough that the newspapers report the ensuing escape as two boys doing it. Tewkesbury and, later, Sherlock see through it.
Sherlock Holmes
Played by: Henry Cavill
Dubbed by: Adrien Antoine (European French), Guilherme Briggs (Brazilian Portuguese)
A famous detective and Enola's older brother.
- Accomplice by Inaction: Sherlock suffers a mild case of this throughout the movie. He disapproves of Mycroft's plans to make Enola a 'proper lady', but says it's 'out of his hands'. He also expresses a disdain for politics, which Edith Bryston calls him out for because his social position (being of landed gentry, a world-class detective and the brother of a ranking government employee) affords him the luxury of not caring. He gets better towards the end of the movie when he requests that Enola be given into his personal custody if possible.
- The Ace: As is standard for Sherlock Holmes, he's brilliant at detective work and a variety of other fields such as chemistry, music, marksmanship, sword fighting, stick fighting, martial arts and boxing.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Sherlock is amused by Enola's cartoonish drawing of Mycroft, but points out that Mycroft himself wouldn't like it. He's right. He also laughs out loud when he realizes Enola beat him to the solution of the mystery.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Cavill's Holmes is more conventionally attractive than the long-faced, lanky, hawk-nosed Holmes described in the stories.
- Adaptational Curves: Henry Cavill's version of Sherlock is obviously muscular and square-jawed, in contrast to the book version, who was described as gaunt.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Sherlock is a bit more open and sentimental towards his sister and their mother's ideals than he was in the books and generally more charming and sociable.
- Aloof Big Brother: Sherlock is very distant despite how much Enola looks up to him due to the years spent apart. Mycroft comes off this way as well, although he's later shown to be outright abusive. Sherlock gets better by the end of the movie, while Mycroft stays Mycroft, though he does agree to pass Enola's wardship off to Sherlock.
- Always Someone Better: The second film shows that Sherlock has a bit more deductive skill and fighting ability than Enola, most likely due to experience. He's the first to discern the false clues pointing to McIntyre, and overpowers Enola when they temporarily wind up fighting in the matchstick factory.
- Big Brother Instinct: To his little sister, Enola.
- Over the course of the first film, he gradually warms up to Enola and decides to take her in as his ward. Unlike Mycroft, Sherlock is more accepting of his sister for who she is and her refusal to become a Proper Lady.
- In 2, he repeatedly looks out for Enola and expresses concern for the danger she finds herself in as a result of her detective work, especially when she's accused of murder.
- Big Brother Mentor: He helps hone his younger sister Enola's detective skills.
- The Big Guy: Genius Bruiser variety between him, Enola, and Tewkesbury. He has a much more physical style than Fragile Speedster Enola and Non-Action Guy Tewkesbury and this is showcased during the climax of the second film when Grail and his Dirty Cops fan out to attack different targets; Enola winds up in the theater's dressing room with Hit-and-Run Tactics on Grail, Tewkesbury gets loaned Sherlock's Sword Cane to fight a cop with a cutlass, while Sherlock himself takes on the other two with his bare hands.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Downplayed since Sherlock really is a great detective, but the sequel mentions that he got the credit for solving the missing marquess case when it was really Enola's handiwork.
- Genius Bruiser: Not only is he the world's greatest detective and absurdly skilled in a variety of intellectual fields, he's also a very muscular man who is also a very efficient hand to hand combatant.
- Genius Slob: In contrast to his refined bearing and impeccable dress sense, his home is a complete sty with papers everywhere and it clearly hasn't been cleaned in a very long time.
- Hero of Another Story: Holmes is already Famed In-Story as a consulting detective and was officially given the job of finding the Marquess. He takes another route by investigating Tewkesbury's uncle.
- I Work Alone: He grunts to Enola that he doesn't like having people in his quarters and prefers working alone. However, he is aware that his aloofness is off-putting and tells Enola not to be like him. In the end, he offers for her to live and work with him. She turns him down, but tells him that she doesn't want him to be alone all the time sets him up for a meeting with a potential flatmate, Dr. Watson.
- Living Legend: Combined with Big Brother Worship, Enola acknowledges Sherlock as "the famous detective" and considers him a genius.
- Men Can't Keep House: His flat is an total mess — it's full of papers everywhere and "bewildering mold", and he snaps at Enola when she touches things. She suggests that a flatmate might do her grumpy bachelor brother some good. She sets up a weekly visit with him to encourage him to tidy up and sets him up with John Watson.
- Sherlock Scan: Wouldn't be Sherlock if he wasn't able to do this. When Sherlock learns that Enola ran away, he follows the clues left by their mother to retrace her steps as far as Edith's studio.
- Smart People Play Chess: According to Enola, famous detective Sherlock's favourite board game is chess, but only against a worthy opponent.
Mycroft Holmes
Played by: Sam Claflin
Dubbed by: Anatole de Bodinat (European French), Raphael Rossatto (Brazilian Portuguese)
Sherlock and Enola's elder brother.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Mycroft is described as corpulent (fat) in the stories, while Claflin's Mycroft is much fitter. With the mustache, he could be mistaken for Watson.
- Adaptational Dumbass: In the stories, Mycroft is described as being even more intellectually gifted than Sherlock to the point his calculations determine government policy. Here, he's explicitly stated to lack Sherlock or even Enola's intellectual gifts.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Mycroft Holmes is far nastier than his original counterpart in Doyle's stories and relatively meaner than his counterpart in the original Enola Holmes book.
- The Heavy: While not villainous, he takes the lead as main antagonist because Enola runs away from home specifically so Mycroft cannot send her to boarding school until Enola decides to help Tewkesbury, at which point the antagonist role shifts to the Dowager with Linthorn as her assassin. Even then, Enola is eventually tracked down and Mycroft puts her back into boarding school, forcing Tewkesbury to sneak in and rescue her, setting up the climax.
- The Proud Elite: Mycroft represents a typical British gentleman of the landed gentry regarding his disdain for women (including his sister and mother) and distaste for the idea of extending the vote to men less privileged than he.
- The Resenter: Mrs. Lane explicitly states this about him, that not being as good as Sherlock and even Enola with observation has been a great source of resentment in his life.
Eudoria Holmes
Played by: Helena Bonham Carter
Dubbed by: Laurence Bréheret (European French), Andrea Murucci (Brazilian Portuguese)
Mother of Mycroft, Sherlock, and Enola.
- Action Mom: Eudoria Holmes taught her daughter Enola how to fight. The various styles shown are Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, and Aikido (while it's a bit of a stretch that she knows aikido, the other two styles were taught in England at the time, with many women suffragettes learning jiu-jitsu).
- Adaptational Badass: Much like Enola, Eudoria wasn't action-driven and there's nothing to indicate she was ever trained in martial arts in the books.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Book Eudoria was very clearly Maternally Challenged, and her emotional distance was a major source of angst for Enola. Film Eudoria is far more openly loving and involved in Enola's life.
- Easily Forgiven: Eudoria's disappearance leads to Enola being emotionally abused, forced to live on her own away from everything she knows, and nearly killed on multiple occasions. Despite this, she accepts Eudoria's rather weak excuse for leaving and her apology.
- Flower Motif: Her signature flower was the chrysanthemum, which Enola and Sherlock use to find information from her.
- Living MacGuffin: Her disappearance kicks off the plot, and Enola and Sherlock spend half the film trying to find her.
- Mama Bear: Distant though she might be, she prioritized her daughter's independence and future as a woman, and in the sequel, along with Edith, she breaks her out of prison after Enola was framed and arrested for murder.
- Parental Abandonment: She leaves Enola out of the blue after her daughter's 16th birthday to begin a campaign of revolutionary suffragist activities. Though she does leave subtle clues for Enola and is revealed to be keeping an eye on her in the end.
- Parents as People: There's no doubt Eudoria loves her daughter and sons, and she raised them to stand on their own in a harsh world. However, her methods to ensure their independence made Mycroft, Sherlock and Enola associate success with loneliness.
Tewkesbury Family
Viscount Tewkesbury
Played by: Louis Partridge
A young runaway aristocrat.
- Action Survivor: Unlike Enola, Tewksbury had no previous combat training and is initially inept during action. However, he's quick to adapt and holds his own during the climax in the sequel.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Being a bit older and less sheltered than his book counterpart, Tewkesbury fares much better in London, managing to independently find lodging and a source of income as a flower seller. He's also clever enough to lay a false trail for his family after running away and his knowledge of plants and herbs means he's able to keep himself and Enola fed when they're forced to ditch the train.
- Age Lift: In the book, the Marquess of Tewkesbury was 12. Here, he's about the same age as Enola, who's 16.
- Blue Blood: Tewkesbury being a marquess is a plot point, as he's a member of the House of Lords and should vote on the Reform Bill. His conservative grandmother conspires to kill him to prevent that.
- Caring Gardener: He's a friendly, empathetic young man who loves growing and researching flora. His flat, as seen in the sequel film, is so overrun with plants that it's practically a jungle.
- Crazy-Prepared: Left a dummy plan in his treehouse when he ran away from home. Linthorn was following this plan when he encountered Enola at Limehouse Lane.
- Disappeared Dad: His father was killed in a botched robbery not long before. Or so we're led to believe; his father really is dead, but the robbery was made to look like an accident.
- Dye or Die: Because the papers show Tewkesbury with long hair, Enola gives him a haircut while on the run so he will not be recognized as easily.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only referred to by his lower title of Viscount Tewkesbury.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: When Enola tells Tewkesbury that she's come to like him more and that his life is in danger, he focuses on the former. She lampshades this.
- I Kiss Your Hand: At their final parting in the first film, Tewkesbury kisses Enola's hand, and she really does not mind at all.
- Last-Name Basis: Tewkesbury's first name never comes up. Justified, as by Victorian social norms, using someone's first name was very intimate indeed; calling him just "Tewkesbury" is already pretty informal (and is what his other friends would probably call him if any showed up).
- Living MacGuffin: Everyone is looking for him because he's set to be a member of the House of Lords, whose vote would spin the issue of voting one way or another.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine Boy, a rich boy who ran away from his family's plan of going off to the army, and a Nature Lover who knows his way around local flora and cooks for himself while Enola is the Masculine Girl, a Spirited Young Lady who resists finishing school and is trained to fight.
- Nature Lover: He spent every moment of his spare time in the woods and has an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, which he uses to pose as a flower seller in London.
- Non-Action Guy: He left home to avoid getting drafted into war, and in combat situations Enola is the fighter. He'll still do his best to help, but he's a distraction at best.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: He's by all accounts a very smart person and repeatedly demonstrates his cunning, whether it's figuring out where Enola went, misleading his assassin, or putting on a breastplate just in case. It's just that he's part of a duo with Enola.
- Promoted to Love Interest: In the books Tewkesbury is younger than Enola and no longer shows up after his disappearance is resolved. In the films they're of an age and develop feelings for each other.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Mentions he bribed a porter to get on the train and not say anything.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the first film, he has no fighting abilities, but in the sequel, he comes off better even defeating a Dirty Cop in a Sword Fight during the climax.
The Dowager
Played by: Frances de la Tour
Tewkesbury's grandmother.
- Affably Evil: She speaks very kindly and politely to Enola, and seems to truly care about Tewkesbury. However, she was the one who had his father (her own son) murdered, and ordered his assassination as well.
- Apologetic Attacker: Says she's sorry to her grandson before shooting him, stating that she feels she has to for the sake of the country.
- Big Bad: She had Tewkesbury's father killed and sends Linthorn to kill her grandson so he can't take his seat in the House of Lords. Later when Linthorn is killed, she attempts to do the job herself.
- Evil Old Folks: Tewkesbury's grandmother is the one that killed his dad and is trying to kill him.
- Evil Reactionary: Tewkesbury's grandmother had his father killed and is trying to kill him due to not wanting either of them to support a reform bill.
- Graceful Loser: Once Tewkesbury reveals himself to have survived her shot, she peacefully surrenders.
- Mean Boss: Contemplates firing one of her workers after he swapped clothes with Enola.
- Non-Action Big Bad: She only takes action at the end of the film after her assassin is killed.
- Offing the Offspring: Tries to kill her grandson twice and ordered her son's murder at the very least (it's unclear if she did it).
- Walking Spoiler: Her true nature is at the center of the climax.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: From her perspective, she's preserving England's greatness by killing her son and grandson, who would give more power to the working class.
Sir Whimbrel Tewkesbury
Played by: David Bamber
Tewkesbury's uncle.
- The Alibi: He gets cleared for his brother's murder because he was out of the country when it happened.
- Chest of Medals: A subtle example, but his everyday clothes have indentations as to where his medals would be. It's actually a plot point because Holmes figures out that he's innocent because he was fighting in Afghanistan when his brother was killed.
- Death Glare: Is apparently capable of giving these at a moment's notice, as Tewkesbury notes that's a similarity he and Enola have.
- Evil Uncle: Tewkesbury's uncle is a subversion. Enola thinks he's trying to pull an Inheritance Murder but really his grandmother is trying to kill him due to his politics. The uncle is ultimately portrayed as a conservative man, but one who does care about his nephew, looking for him while he's missing and sincerely telling Tewkesbury his father would be proud when the younger man is preparing to take his seat in the House of Lords.
- Never Bareheaded: Always seen wearing a military-style cap.
- Red Herring: He is fingered as the Big Bad because he would theoretically have the most to gain from Tewkesbury's murder. Turns out he's innocent.
- So Proud of You: Implied when he and Tewkesbury's mother accompany his nephew to take his seat in the House of Lords, and he says his father would be proud of him.
- You Remind Me of X: Tewkesbury says Enola reminds him of his uncle through their bossy demeanor and withering stares.
Caroline, Lady Tewkesbury
Played by: Hattie Morahan
Tewkesbury's mother.
- Out of Focus: Doesn't make nearly as much of an impression as her mother-in-law or her brother-in-law.
- So Proud of You: Implied when she and her brother-in-law are acompanying her son to take his seat in the House of Lords after the assassination attempt is foiled.
Police
Inspector Lestrade
Played by: Adeel Akhtar
A top inspector of Scotland Yard.
- Dashingly Dapper Derby: Typically wears a bowler hat as befitting a gentleman in good standing.
- Fanboy: Acts as one for Sherlock. In the first film, he and Enola quiz each other on a number of intimate details about the detective. In the sequel, he actively geeks out while visiting Sherlock at his flat, taking note of his famous pipe and violin.
- Hero Antagonist: A Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist. He has no problem with Enola personally, it's just that he's been sent to track her down. This carries over into the sequel where Enola is accused of murder and Lestrade has little choice but to chase her down.
- Nothing Personal: He has nothing against Enola and is genuinely respectful of her, but none of that stops him from capturing her and bringing her back to Mycroft.
- Race Lift: An implicitly white character in the novels (due to being a cop in Victorian England), here he's played by a black/South Asian man.
Other Characters
Linthorn
Played by: Burn Gorman
A hired assassin.
- All There in the Manual: Linthorn's name is only used in subtitles and credits.
- Cane Fu: Typically uses a walking stick as his first means of attacking.
- Dastardly Dapper Derby: A brown bowler hat, which is this assassin's main identifying feature.
- Evil Cripple: Walks with a limp and needs to use a cane. That doesn't mean he can't hold his own.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Corkscrew-kicked onto a statuette, breaking open his head.
- Hidden Weapons: Carries a knife hidden in his sock as a backup weapon.
- In-Series Nickname: Referred to as the "Man in the brown bowler hat" since neither Enola nor Tewkesbury know his name.
- Made of Iron: Gets bludgeoned multiple times with a cane, is at the center of an explosion, and after having his head broken open on a statuette, has enough life left in him to eke out some last words.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Firmly believes that he's doing what's right for the country, as evidenced by his last words.
- Professional Killer: He's an assassin on the payroll of the Dowager.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Wields a double-barreled shotgun during the climax, which the subtitles erroneously refer to as a rifle.
- Wham Line: His last words about working for England reveal that the plot to assassinate Tewkesbury is not about money (as Enola and Tewkesbury thought) but politics.
- Would Hurt a Child: Has absolutely no qualms trying to kill two teenagers.
Edith Grayston
Played by: Susie Wokoma
The director of a jujitsu studio.
- Always Someone Better: Despite what Enola has learned, she hasn't come close to Surpassing the Teacher, as Edith beats her in several seconds.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Enola doesn't remember Edith (her former teacher) from when they first met.
- Improvised Weapon: Even Sherlock Holmes, a noted boxer, looks wary when she threatens him with a teapot, noting that in her hands it's a mighty weapon.
- The Mentor: One of Enola's first teachers for fighting.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Sherlock for neglecting Enola and for dismissing her own political activism because he's one of the few whom the system benefits while many others are left powerless.
Ms. Harrison
Played by: Fiona Shaw
An old friend of Mycroft's who runs a finishing school for young ladies.
- Anti-Villain: She holds women in the typical standards as expected from the time period, but that's because she grew up with those values and believes she's doing what's best for them.
- Female Misogynist: She believes that women are only good for marrying and raising children.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Raises a good one about Eudoria: if she cared so much about Enola, why did she leave?
- Unrequited Love: She's hopelessly in love with Mycroft, of all people.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Eudoria, but they split over Eudoria's ideas.
- Would Hurt a Child: Hits Enola for speaking out against her.
Mrs. Lane
Played by: Claire Rushbrook
The Holmes' housekeeper.
- Adapted Out: Not herself, but her husband, Mr. Lane, who also works at the house estate in the books.
- Kindly Housekeeper: Keeps the house in the best shape she can and is the main person who worries about Enola.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives Sherlock flak about his seeming amusement at Enola's flight and tells him not to abandon Enola again.
