WATCH: Davies hints at long hiatus for Doctor Who after this season… UPDATED Gatwa out?

April 10th, 2025 by Marc Comments

Hmmmmm… this is not the sort of thing you expect a showrunner to say ahead of the second season of a “successful” series debuting in a couple of days.

Yes, Doctor Who returns this Saturday, April 12th, and the new eight episodes will see Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor teaming up with new companion Belinda Chandra played by Varada Seth, however, after the show’s abysmal return in November 2023, there’s very little excitement or chatter in the fandom and rumours have run rife that the show has performed so poorly, that this new series – season 2 (for some reason) will see the classic sci-fi go back into forced hiatus.

And this certainly seems to be supported by the later interview with the stars and showrunner Russell T Davies.

Russell T Davies doesn’t sound so sure Doctor Who will get a third series anymore

In the new clip, below, stars Gatwa and Chandra are asked about the third series and both say they know nothing, however, Davies goes a different road with his answer.

“I kind of know that the Doctor has reached the status of like Robin Hood,” Davies says, “sometimes there might be a pause and during that pause, the viewers of Newsround (a children’s news series here in the UK) will grow up in a few years and start writing stories and they’ll bring it back, so I have absolute faith that that will survive… and that’s what happens to good ideas, no good idea ever dies.”

Talking about a pause, about children bringing it back in a few years, no good idea ever dies… I don’t think this is the chatter of a man confident that he has delivered a series good enough to get a third outing, do you?

Back in December, after the disastrous first season aired, Davies hinted that there was a chance the show wouldn’t be getting  third series, saying: “We don’t know if there’s a third series yet. This [Series Two] will go out in the summer and then they’ll decide it. The BBC will decide, as well, its future.”

Then, in February, news broke on the tabloids and internet that Gatwa was leaving to pursue bigger things and that the BBC were set to cancel the series, but there was no official word.

Doctor Who on verge of cancellation? Gatwa ready to walk?

What I know for sure is this: Doctor Who’s return during the Tennant, Smith and Capaldi years was always a reason to be excited, sure, we knew some episodes wouldn’t hit the spot, but it was the adventure, the fun, the excited and, most importantly, the escapism, that we looked forward to. The new series lacks a lot of that, especially the escapism.

Doctor Who returns this Saturday. I get the feeling that could the last time I write that for a very, very long time.

Thoughts?

UPDATED:

Gatwa has joined the Born With Teeth theatre production for later this year, from August 13th for 11 weeks, meaning it’s now almost definite he won’t be filming a third series anytime soon, it also likely means a Christmas Special is not happening either.

Fuel to the fire, anyone?

Watch the Davies clip here:

WATCH: New trailer drops for Doctor Who season 2 and it looks… good?

Tags: , ,
Marc

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….