Showrunner, Russell T Davies has confirmed that Varada Sethu was cast as the new Doctor Who companion after she impressed him filming Boom, the third episode of Series 14.

Sethu will appear with Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor and, slightly later on in Series 15, Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, but Davies has said “she’s not coming back as Mundy Flynn”.

So no, she didn’t even audition!

He explained:

“I was watching, like, the 15th edit of Boom, loving her. Every time I watch her, I think, ‘God, she’s brilliant.’ I literally think she’s brilliant. I used to watch her thinking, ‘God, what a shame we can’t work with her again.’

“I was thinking, ‘Should we go back to the 51st century? Could we meet her again?’ and then I suddenly went, ‘Oh, let’s just cast her again. We’ve done that before. Lovely.’ The relief that went around the entire production and the BBC, everyone went, ‘Oh, great.’ It was the most instant ‘yes’ you’ve ever seen.

“So, she didn’t even have to audition. We then invited her to come in for a meeting, but she thought she was coming in to audition and it was the other way round. It’s like we were auditioning. We were wanting her to like us so much that she’d want to come back!

“We had a great meeting. She was kind of amazed and delighted. Lovely. Good stuff ahead. Completely new character, again, a completely new story, and that’s a great new story that will run across eight episodes.”

Indeed, previous companions have appeared in Doctor Who playing different characters before playing travelling in the TARDIS — notably, Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones but also starred in Army of Ghosts and Karen Gillan, aka Amy Pond, though she’d previously been in The Fires of Pompeii.

Prepare to meet Sethu’s character next year, in Doctor Who Series 15!