There’s speculation that Sacha Dhawan might be returning to Doctor Who as the Time Lord nemesis, the Master.
Dhawan debuted in the role in Spyfall opposite Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, and when asked whether he’d be back under the stewardship of new showrunner, Russell T Davies, Sacha said:
“Well, I’m involved in a few things that I can’t talk about, so who knows? I’m also creating my own stuff because I don’t necessarily just want to be moving from job to job, but it’s not always easy. The industry can feel quite isolating, but I’m holding my nerve.”
Of course, this might have nothing to do with Doctor Who. Or it might have nothing to do with Doctor Who on TV — he’s confirmed to be starring in his own audio spin-off from Big Finish… although there’s been a definite dearth of news about that for some time; could that be because Davies intends to use this Master on TV again, leaving a grey area when it comes to audio rights?
As is, Dhawan’s last appearance as the Master was in Whittaker’s swansong story, The Power of the Doctor, and while he was seemingly killed, this is the Master we’re talking about. He’s been killed loads of times, but always bounces back!
It might be nice to have a version of the Master stay on to face multiple Doctors; John Simm’s essentially bowed out with David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor — just like Tennant, though, he did come back, albeit alongside Missy, a future version of himself played by Michelle Gomez, in the multi-Master tale, World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls.