“Doctor Who” Series Faces Uncertain Future (2025)

Back in 2022, Disney announced it had made a new deal with the BBC to bring the iconic classic British sci-fi series, “Doctor Who”, to Disney+ subscribers around the world, while remaining exclusive to the BBC in the United Kingdom.

As part of the new deal, the show would be rebooted, with Ncuti Gatwa becoming the new Doctor and Russell T Davies returning as the showrunner to jumpstart the franchise into a new global streaming era.

In late 2023, four special “Doctor Who” episodes were released, with David Tennant returning as the Doctor for three 60th anniversary specials. This led to the regeneration of the Doctor, which resulted in the Christmas special being the first adventure of Ncuti’s run.

In May 2024, the first season of “Doctor Who” was released, with the show numbering rebooting to indicate it was a fresh take on the franchise.

In first season, the Doctor teams up with his new companion, Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, who go on crazy adventures across time and space in the TARDIS. From the Regency era in England to war-torn futures, the duo champion the forces of good while encountering incredible friends and dangerous foes.

While there was initially a lot of excitement about the new “Doctor Who” and the series coming to Disney+ around the world, the initial reaction to the series wasn’t positive. Viewership numbers for the UK on the BBC linear channel showed it was the lowest-watched season of the show so far, with an average of 2.25 million and 3.18 million viewers per episode. However, the BBC would defend the drop in linear viewership, stating that more people were watching on its own streaming service, iPlayer.

However, internationally, Disney never officially revealed any viewership data for “Doctor Who”, which is usually an indication that it wasn’t good, since whenever a new release does well, Disney will usually release a press statement to hype up their success. “Doctor Who” also never made it onto the independent Nielsen streaming chart, highlighting once again that there wasn’t much interest in the show.

The new “Doctor Who” series has been plagued with complaints about its quality. Although the production budget was drastically increased following the partnership with Disney+, many viewers complained about the poor storylines. The show also received lots of complaints about pushing too many storylines with an agenda and being too”woke.”

Within the first season and anniversary specials, the show featured storylines about a character saving London because they were trans, a drag queen villain, and many other hot topics, including religion and racism.As you might expect, these storylines got global attention, and combined with the low viewership numbers, the future of the show is in doubt.

Disney and the BBC have both publicly stated that they aren’t deciding whether a third season will be made until after the second season airs. The original deal between Disney and the BBC, which is estimated to cost around $100 million, was for two seasons of the show, plus the specials. A spokesperson for the show stated:

“The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes – and exactly half of those still have to transmit. And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”

A recent report by The Sun, states that Disney is expected to pull out of the deal with the BBC, putting the future of “Doctor Who” in question, with the franchise likely to be shelved for five or ten years to recover.

This wouldn’t be the first time “Doctor Who” has been cancelled, as this happened back in 1989, only for it to return in 1996 for a TV movie with Paul McGann and once again regenerate into a new series with Christopher Eccleston taking over the title role.

Apparently, Ncuti Gatwa has already filmed his own regeneration scene to bring in a new Doctor, as the actor has been very open about wanting to head to Hollywood to work on other projects following appearances in “Barbie” and other shows like “Masters Of The Air”. An insider said:

“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. 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.

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. People warned some episodes were getting too caught up on an agenda rather than telling a story and those people got shouted down, ignored.”

According to some members of the crew, who wrapped filming on the second season last week in Cardiff, were ­furious at being left in limbo following the decision to wait to see how the season performs.

“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. Filming wrapped on Friday afternoon, with no fanfare or celebration.”

One of the other big problems with “Doctor Who” for Disney is that this was a contract made during Bob Chapek’s reign as CEO. With Bob Iger’s return, he has gone on a major cost-cutting exercise that has resulted in billions of dollars being saved and the streaming division finally turning a profit.

While Disney has had success with some BBC shows like “Dancing With The Stars” and “Bluey”, it felt like Disney was doing the bare minimum promotion for “Doctor Who”, after the holiday specials failed to pull in audiences.

Another major problem with “Doctor Who” is that Disney is spending a lot of money on a show it can’t properly use at its theme parks or with merchandise. Plus, with the return of Bob Iger, the studio has become more focused on its own franchises, so it’s easy to see why it would rather invest in its own content than someone else’s.

It’s also trying to avoid political problems, and “Doctor Who” has literally pressed on every hot topic in the past two years, leading to more negative headlines for Disney, which it doesn’t want.

In the last sixty years, almost 900 episodes of the show have been filmed, and it has proven itself to be a popular franchise. However, the latest version just hasn’t clicked with audiences. I’ve no doubt that even if Disney doesn’t renew their contract for “Doctor Who,” eventually, the character will return in one way or another.

The second season of “Doctor Who” is set to premiere on the BBC and Disney+ later this year, plus there is a spin-off series called “The War Between the Land and the Sea” also being released in 2025.

Do you think Disney will continue its relationship with “Doctor Who”? Let me know on social media!