Doctor Who May Turn To HBO After Disney Split
Is it better to have collaborated and lost than never have collaborated at all?
In 2023, Doctor Who took a big leap. The British time travel series was set to celebrate its 60th anniversary with a series of new episodes starring David Tennant — the acclaimed Tenth Doctor — as the identical Fourteenth Doctor. With the returning star came a returning showrunner, Russell T. Davies, the mind behind the 2005 reboot. But the biggest change for American viewers was a cautious team-up between the BBC and Disney+, with Disney contributing to the budget for the series in exchange for distributing the series outside of the UK.
However, this tenuous pairing didn’t end well. Disney+ left the deal after Season 2 of the newly rebooted Doctor Who, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. Now, the future of Doctor Who as we know it is in danger (and an entire miniseries is in limbo), but apparently, another co-production agreement could still happen.
The Disney+ era of Doctor Who started out optimistic, but now the entire series is in trouble.
In an interview with Deadline, the BBC’s Director of Drama, Lindsey Salt, provided an update on the future of Doctor Who without Disney in the mix. She said conversations about funding the show’s future aren’t happening, as all efforts are focused on the upcoming Christmas special.
“There are different ways of setting up a show,” she said. “We just need to make sure we do it in the right way and make sure we take the right time to do it. Ultimately, it’s one of the BBC’s most treasured brands, so it’s not going anywhere.”
Even with how the Disney deal ended, Salt says a co-production deal with an American studio could still happen. The leading theory is that HBO may be the best option, as the HBO Max service is about to launch in the UK, and there are already similar deals in place with the new shows from Richard Gadd and Michaela Coel. “We’ll wait and see how we figure it out. HBO have been great partners creatively,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff that is changing out there.”
After Season 2, we don’t know where Doctor Who will go next in the States.
So, the times they are a-changin’, and that means anything is possible for the future of the oldest sci-fi series. After all, it survived for more than half a century without any American interference, but in a time when budgets for TV episodes often rival feature-length movies, keeping up to the fandom’s expectations may mean a little help from the Yanks.
HBO is a likely choice, as the 2005 reboot — up until the 60th anniversary — was available on HBO Max until it was removed at the end of July 2025. Now, you can’t watch much of Doctor Who in the US at all, but who knows, another deal may change everything.
