Doctor Who has faced many a cancellation rumor since before it came back from hiatus 20 years ago (and of course, plenty before that up to its eventual cancellation in 1989). But even then, the series has not quite faced such a big question mark over its future as it does right now, beholden as it is to a major production and distribution deal with Disney—which is why the latest rumors about Doctor Who‘s future have warranted a response by the BBC.
Last night British tabloid the Sun alleged that the BBC had made the decision to put Doctor Who on hiatus once again, for a period of anywhere between five and 10 years. The newspaper further alleged that Ncuti Gatwa has already filmed a regeneration sequence and was preparing to exit the series after the conclusion of the 2025 season in order to focus on other projects, with an inside source citing both low ratings for the 2024 season and accusations that the series was facing overwhelming backlash for featuring storylines that “were getting too caught up on an agenda rather than telling a story” as reasons for his departure.
However, the BBC have now quickly pushed back on the report. “This story is incorrect,” a brief statement provided to Radio Times reads in part. “Doctor Who has not been shelved. As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 [season numbering for the series was reset for the third time with Gatwa’s debut season] will be made after season 2 airs.”
Live ratings for the 2024 season were down compared to both the 60th anniversary specials in 2023 and Doctor Who‘s prior heights in the pre-streaming, on-demand age, but showrunner Russell T. Davies previously defended the series as having successfully realigned its audience to a more robust, younger audience. “In coming back, I wanted to make it simpler and I wanted to make it younger,” Davies told audiences at a BAFTA Q&A session last summer. “Those two things are often not discussed—you read reactions to it and people are missing that. It’s simpler and younger—and it is working. The under-16s and the 16-34 audience as well is massive. It’s not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”
But the latest reports come off of the back of a series of acknowledgements by Davies himself that Doctor Who currently does not have a concrete future laid out beyond the release of this year’s batch of episodes, as well as the upcoming spinoff series War Between Land and Sea. Writing in the January 2025 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Davies confirmed that not even a Christmas special for 2025 had been ordered yet, but remained optimistic about the show’s future—as Disney also has—despite no commitment to make more of the series actually being made yet, something the BBC further refused to comment on in its latest statement.
“The deal with Disney Plus was for 26 episodes—and exactly half of those still have to transmit,” the BBC’s statement concluded. “And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”
Time will tell just what future Doctor Who faces beyond 2025, but rumored or otherwise, we’re running out of time before a decision is going to need to be made: Doctor Who‘s return to both the BBC in the UK and Ireland, and Disney+ internationally, is expected to hit screens sometime this spring.
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