Amidst Rumors Of Actor’s Quitting, BBC Declines To Clarify Whether Ncuti Gatwa Is Still Attached To ‘Doctor Who’
It seems like Doctor Who may have found itself in a spot of production-related trouble, as rather than outright deny a new rumor suggesting that series lead Ncuti Gatwa has abruptly called it quits on his time as The Doctor, the BBC has instead chosen to completely dodge the question entirely.
Gatwa, who currently serves as the 15th and latest incarnation of the series’ titular Time Lord, was first said to be leaving the show on February 17th, with the claim being made by none other than noted UK tabloid outlet The Sun.
“Ncuti doesn’t want to be tied to the series beyond this and plans to relocate to Los Angeles with several Hollywood projects standing by for him,” the outlet quoted of the alleged insiders who provided them with this information. “His team also see a lot of fan backlash from the series, and don’t want the perception of him still being The Doctor to get in the way of any future work.”
But far from a potential casting shake-up being Doctor Who‘s only fast-approaching only problem, said insider also claimed that due to its poor management and quality, the decision had been made to cancel the series at the end of its next season.
“The show has been poorly managed in recent years and there’s a lot of people who’ve been working on this show for years and now being cast aside due to poor leadership,” said an insider. “People warned some episodes were getting too caught up on an agenda rather than telling a story and those people got shouted down, ignored.”
To this end, they then asserted, “Word on set is that the BBC will shelve the series for at least five years. The crew were told not to hold their breath for work on the series for at least ten years.”
“As we scramble to find work, those responsible get to ride off on to other well-paid projects without any repercussions,” the insider concluded. “Filming wrapped on Friday afternoon, with no fanfare or celebration.”
Unsurprisingly, The Sun’s report would eventually draw a response from the BBC – though curiously, while the British broadcaster did deny that Doctor Who had officially been cancelled, they did not give any attention to the topic of Gatwa’s employment.
“Doctor Who has not been shelved,” a BBC spokesperson told the tabloid. “As we have previously stated, the decision on Season 3 will be made after Season 2 airs. The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes — and exactly half of those still have to transmit.”
Notably, the BBC’s side-stepping the topic of Gatwa’s future behind the controls of the Tardis comes roughly four months after they edited an interview given by the actor on The Graham Norton Show to remove his assertion that he was looking forward to returning for a third season as The Doctor.
According to transcripts circulated to the press ahead of the episode’s airing and shared by Deadline, the actor originally noted to his host, “We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up, and we are filming a third series next year.”
However, upon airing, Gatwa instead heard saying, “We finished the second season earlier this year, we’ve got the Christmas episode coming out … at Christmas … But it’s been amazing.”
While an unidentified source informed Deadline that the reason for this edit was not “sinister”, but merely a desire to ‘punch up’ Gatwa’s answer, the BBC never offered an official explanation for the entire affair.
But in the interest of fairness, it seems the edit was made, at least in part, due to the fact that the broadcaster has yet to make an official announcement regarding Doctor Who‘s post-Season 2 renewal.
Case in point, when pressed by Deadline for comment on the situation, the BBC declared, “As we’ve said previously, the decision on season three will be made after season two transmits and as always we don’t comment on speculation.”
Ultimately, it seems the truth of the matter will only become clear at the conclusion of Doctor Who‘s next season, which is currently set to premiere on Disney Plus sometime later this year.
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