Following rumours about a new series of Torchwood, John Barrowman has confirmed that he’s not going to be in anything related to Doctor Who any time soon — putting pay to social media posts advertising a fifth series of the spin-off.
Primarily on Facebook, new posts about Torchwood are doing the rounds, pairing Captain Jack Harkness up again with Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), and adding in Rogue, the character played in Doctor Who Series 14 by Jonathan Groff. When asked about the notion, Barrowman, who first appeared as Harkness in 2005’s The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, explained:
“This is not real as I have been effectively blacklisted from anything BBC and Torchwood or Doctor Who.”
A further clue comes in the fact the post advertises it as being eight episodes in November 2024, which is, y’know, now. And another still is that it’s clearly a dodgy Photoshop job.
Back in 2021, Barrowman came under fire after sexual misconduct allegations were raised, some of which he’s apologised for and called “inappropriate pranks.” This resulted in his TV narrative being dropped after appearances in the Thirteenth Doctor era, as well as him being dropped from Big Finish’s Torchwood range, including an audio adventure for Captain Jack and David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.
It sounds like he’s effectively been “cancelled,” and quite honestly, I have mixed feelings about this. I think everyone deserves a second chance, yes; equally, what he reportedly did was hideous, at least from what we’ve heard about these allegations. I think stopping his means of income completely is wrong. However, just as wrong is the fact other people on set knew and didn’t put a stop to it — there was even a song made in which they joked about what supposedly happened. It’s pretty insane, and I think those people have questions they need to answer, but likely never will.
I don’t see the harm in more Torchwood, and that could mean bringing Gwen back to lead the team instead. Then again, it’s a brand associated with Harkness, so it might be odd if he weren’t involved.
We’ve not really covered all this stuff with Barrowman because it’s tricky. There’s no real answer to it. Either way, we want to shut down some fake news, even if we wished there were still a future for Torchwood.
