Rumours abound that Millie Gibson has left her Doctor Who role as Ruby Sunday and that a new companion, reportedly played by Varada Sethu, has been cast, to star alongside Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa from Series 15.

The source of this speculation is The Mirror, a tabloid that has nonetheless got many things right about Doctor Who in the past decade or so, including departures of Doctors, companions, and showrunners.

The newspaper suggests that Millie will only be in three of the eight episode run comprising Doctor Who Series 15, set to air in 2025. We still have at least nine more confirmed episodes with Ruby Sunday left to screen, i.e. eight for Series 14, coming this year, and a Christmas special; we do know Gibson has filmed some of Series 15, so she will be in the 2025 season, potentially making her the first companion to leave mid-series since Amy and Rory (Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, respectively) in Series 7.

The Mirror reports that Varada Sethu will play the new companion.

A “source” stated:

“Varada is a real gem, Russell [T Davies, showrunner] was just blown away by her talent. The cast and crew have really warmed to her and he’s sure the fans will too.”

The 32-year-old Sethu has starred in numerous high-profile roles, in TV series like the Star Wars spin-off, Andor, and Hard Sun (penned by Hide‘s Neil Cross), as well as films like Jurassic World Dominion and Now You See Me 2.

We know that Gibson is looking to audition for more roles, potentially in Hollywood, but that doesn’t count her out of the Whoniverse anyway, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

With filming due to commence again soon, we suspect an announcement is just around the corner if The Mirror is correct…