BBC Insists Its Disney Partnership Stays Sturdy in Wake of ‘Physician Who’ Doubts

Ever for the reason that newest season of Physician Who got here to a messy end just a few months in the past, the most important query on audiences’ minds (among the many many questions raised by that finale) is when, or if, we would anticipate to see the present return to our screens. The additional we’ve moved from the season with out information apart from that there isn’t a information in regards to the BBC renewing its funding and distribution cope with Disney for the sequence, the more doubts have grown. However the BBC continues to emphasize that it’s centered on working with Disney… even when concrete information about Physician Who stays not possible to search out.

Talking to the press after the discharge of the BBC’s Annual Report (through Deadline), BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell harassed that the BBC stays dedicated to Physician Who‘s future, even because it declines to formally announce the present’s continuation.

“Followers love the Physician Who model. It’s been that manner since earlier than I used to be in brief trousers,” Fussell stated, including that the BBC noticed its cope with Disney to partially fund and distribute Physician Who internationally as “essential” and that BBC Studios is “actually dedicated to Physician Who and is continuous to have a look at methods through which we will deliver the present to followers.”

The BBC works with Disney on not simply Physician Who, however a number of BBC Studios exhibits, together with Dancing With the Stars, the U.S. model of Strictly Come Dancing, and Bluey, together with a financing deal on the latter’s upcoming feature film.

Fussell’s feedback, whereas optimistic, don’t affirm when or if Physician Who will return any time quickly, within the wake of Ncuti Gatwa’s exit because the Physician and the shock arrival of former star Billie Piper as a possible subsequent or altered incarnation of the Time Lord.

The feedback come within the wake of accelerating doubt that Physician Who can or will return to manufacturing throughout the subsequent few years. The potential of a return in 2026 and even 2027 on the earliest is probably going off the desk at this level with no official phrase from Disney or the BBC about continuation of their manufacturing deal. With both Gatwa himself and present showrunner Russell T Davies uncommitted in regards to the sequence’ future, it’s doable that if Physician Who does return, it would accomplish that a number of years down the road.

Whereas followers watch for that, there are some small slices of Physician Who on the way in which. The final ingredient of the present cope with Disney, a five-episode spinoff miniseries titled The War Between The Land and The Sea is anticipated to probably launch by the tip of this 12 months. The BBC additionally not too long ago confirmed it’s on the lookout for a manufacturing associate on a brand new animated iteration of the series, aimed toward younger audiences via its CBeebies platform.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing you have to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.