Doctor Who Season 3 Hasn’t Been Commissioned Yet, Russell T Davies Reveals
Disney is taking its timey-wimey.
Despite being considered a pillar of U.K.’s pop culture, Doctor Who’s status has always been somewhat in flux. There’s the fact that its lead actor changes every few years (something that Doctor Who cleverly wrote into the canon of its show). There’s the fact that it’s been canceled once before. And there’s the fact that its newest era, shepherded by returning showrunner Russell T Davies and led by Ncuti Gatwa, has the big-budget backing of Disney. And Disney doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with Doctor Who.
Since the airing of its 60th-anniversary special, Doctor Who has found a home on Disney+, where it underwent a soft reboot to reach a wider audience. And despite promising viewership numbers for its first season and an exciting second season on the way, Davies confirms to Inverse that a third season has not yet been commissioned by Disney yet.
“There's no commission of Season 3 yet,” Davies tells Inverse. “There are no serious conversations about anything because the series doesn't exist yet. But I love this job. I love staying in it. I'd be very happy.”
This somewhat matches what Davies said in an earlier interview on David Tennant’s podcast, in which he said that there have been conversations about Season 3, but that they’ve proven “tricky.” However, Davies’ positive statement about continuing the job as showrunner does put a kibosh on rumors that he would exit the show after the second season.
Star Ncuti Gatwa was a little more coy on whether or not he would return for the third season, but it seems like Doctor Who’s future isn’t in as much jeopardy as rumors would suggest.
Not to mention, outside of the main Doctor Who show, Davies is keeping busy. The writer-producer is working on a spinoff, The War Between the Land and the Sea, which follows UNIT as they attempt to prevent a battle with the ancient Sea Devils. Apart from a few returning Whoniverse characters, like Jemma Redgrave’s Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the show will be “completely free-standing,” Davies says.
“It's absolutely the same world. But we want people to be able to watch it completely independently and happily. It's great. It's a terrific show, that one,” he says.
