A new account suggests that everything we thought about Ncuti Gatwa’s third season of Doctor Who was indeed correct: another series was written but Disney pulling out meant it never happened.
TV Zone, which normally gets this sort of stuff right, says that scripts were underway in 2024, but that Disney informed the BBC that they didn’t intend to renew their partnership beyond the initial two-season (plus spin-off) agreement; this then resulted in Ncuti Gatwa leaving the role of the Fifteenth Doctor.
The report says:
“TV Zone has seen crew CVs from employees of Bad Wolf which state that scripts were being written and developed from May to September 2024, following the end of production on Season 2 which had been filming during the first half of that year.”
This is basically in line with everything we’d previously heard, and makes a lot of sense. Gatwa had even been talking about filming a third series of Doctor Who when he appeared on The Graham Norton Show.
Rumours also suggest that Gatwa left due to inactivity, meaning he had to turn down roles in case he had to go back to film Doctor Who sooner than expected; given that, if Disney pulled out, the BBC would need to find another source of funding and distribution, it would take a while for such a partnership to get off the ground — as indeed has happened! It’s understandable, then, that Gatwa got itchy feet.
It’s all very sad, of course, and leaves the future of Doctor Who up in the air.
Doctor Who will nonetheless return to TV this Christmas.
