A new (re)generation: Inside Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who

You hear the Fifteenth Doctor long before you see him. It’s a misty March day in London where Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has traded the TARDIS for an Entertainment Weekly cover shoot, unveiling a new peek at his time-traveling, two-hearted hero. In a few moments, he’ll zoom past on his way to the shoot’s oversized clock set, just a cackling blur in a TARDIS-blue kilt, before lighting up the soundstage with some impressive dance moves. (When asked to choose a playlist, he picks Beyoncé’s Renaissance album, starting with — what else? — “Alien Superstar.”) But, for now, his laugh precedes him, echoing down from the hair and makeup room like a warm pulse of solar radiation. 

A few days later, that same laugh rings through Wolf Studios in Wales, where Gatwa is back on the Doctor Who set filming an episode for his second season. (EW is sworn to secrecy about exactly what we witnessed, but we can confirm that it involved space stations, holograms, and the Doctor using his brain to thwart an interstellar foe.) It’s a serious moment, one where Gatwa has to stare into the camera and reach forward with his hand… until he accidentally jostles a piece of camera equipment. The actor immediately suspends any seriousness, striking a cartoonish grimace until the entire crew is giggling along with him. It’s a laugh that Gatwa’s Doctor Who colleagues know well by now. Showrunner Russell T Davies calls it the “biggest laugh in the galaxy,” and Millie Gibson, who plays the Doctor’s companion Ruby Sunday, says it’s one of her favorite things about Gatwa. The costars met the day she came in for her Doctor Who callback, and Gibson remembers fidgeting nervously in the waiting room — until hearing that loud, booming chuckle from the other room.

“I could just hear his laugh, and I was like, ‘There he is!’” she recalls. “All my nerves melted away.”

To be fair, Gatwa has a lot to laugh about. After stealing scenes in Sex Education and Barbie, the 31-year-old actor is launching his next act, playing the titular Time Lord in the BBC’s legendary sci-fi series Doctor Who. After popping up in last year’s 60th anniversary special, “The Giggle,” and a solo Christmas episode, he’s now taking full control of the TARDIS, headlining his first full season as the Doctor — making him the first Black and first openly queer man to take on the role. It’s a new era for both Gatwa and the show itself: For the first time ever, the BBC is partnering with Disney+ to launch the show worldwide, and when the new season premieres May 10, it will air simultaneously around the globe. 

The move comes with a bigger budget, a bigger platform, and bigger scrutiny. Gatwa admits that he was super anxious in the lead-up to the anniversary special (“I almost didn’t even leave my house”), and his shoulders didn’t relax until the Christmas episode aired. Even now, he can feel his muscles tightening as the new season’s air date approaches. “I was really cautious about getting it right throughout filming,” the Rwandan-Scottish actor explains. “It’s 60 years’ worth of legacy and 60 years’ worth of a show that people have loved and watched with their families. It lives in people’s hearts, so I really wanted to protect that.”

Fortunately for Gatwa, fans and colleagues alike seem to have already fallen for his Doctor. Davies remembers watching Gatwa’s “bigeneration” scene in “The Giggle,” where David Tennant’s Doctor passes the torch. (Historically, the Doctor cheats death by “regenerating” into a new body and face, but the anniversary introduced the concept of “bigeneration,” as Tennant’s Doctor split in two.) It was a high-stakes, top-secret scene, made all the more dramatic by the presence of Tennant, guest star Neil Patrick Harris, and Who legends Catherine Tate, Jemma Redgrave, and Bonnie Langford. But from the moment Gatwa stepped onto the helipad, careening about the scene in a rumpled tie and no trousers, Davies says he immediately felt like, well… the Doctor.

“That’s an inferno to throw Ncuti into,” the writer explains. “Talk about being thrown into the deep end. But [I could] see him owning it and triumphing.”

“It seemed like we were really part of a new beginning, and there was a serenity about it as well,” adds Langford, who reprises her role as beloved ’80s companion Mel Bush. “We knew that this show was in safe hands.”

Reinvention has always been part of Who’s DNA. The show holds the Guinness World Record as the longest-running sci-fi series on TV, and since its 1963 debut, 14 main actors have played the role, stretching from William Hartnell to Jodie Whittaker. Doctors and companions have come and gone, but the show’s basic format remains, following an eccentric alien as he — or she — zooms through space and time in the TARDIS. (It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and underneath that blue police box exterior, it’s bigger on the inside.) In 2005, Queer as Folk creator Davies resurrected the show after years off the air, overseeing four seasons led by the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and the Tenth (Tennant). 

Davies departed the show when Tennant stepped down in 2010, and he wasn’t exactly planning a return to the Whoniverse. But during the early days of the pandemic, he reunited with Tennant and Tate for an impromptu tweet-along of old Who episodes, and the three had so much fun that they agreed to return for a trio of specials, pegged to the 60th anniversary. Originally, Davies says, his pitch was just to write a few specials, reteaming Tennant’s Doctor with Tate’s companion Donna Noble. But when he logged on to an initial Zoom meeting to discuss the anniversary with the BBC, he noticed there were a lot more executives than he was expecting — important, high-ranking executives.

“They sprung the trap on me,” Davies says with a laugh. “They said, ‘We want to make Doctor Who bigger. We want to take it to a streamer. We want to go worldwide. We want it to have a bigger budget. And we want it to be up there with Stranger Things and Star Trek and the Marvel shows. We think that it’s good enough, and we believe in the show to know that it can have that heft, weight, and swagger.’”

A lifelong Whovian, Davies says the BBC’s proposal was “music to my ears,” and his brain immediately started swirling with new story ideas — plus some ideas for what kind of monsters a new budget might be able to buy him. “Finally, we can afford for different members of an alien race to have different faces!” he says with glee. The timing also lined up: The 60-year-old writer had recently wrapped his hit miniseries It’s a Sin, and he had yet to pick a next project.

“It was one of those times in my life where people said, ‘Oh, you can do anything you want now,’” he recalls. “It’s very rarely true for a writer, but actually, that was one of those moments when I thought, ‘Okay, I can do whatever I want.’ So, to turn around and tell my agency, ‘I’m going back to Doctor Who,’ it was quite a moment.”

The show had its writer; now, it needed its Doctor. Davies says he searched the galaxy, auditioning men, women, and nonbinary actors from “all sorts of diverse backgrounds.” Gatwa was the very last actor to read, and his involvement came with a sort of serendipity: Just one week earlier, unprompted, he had texted his agent to say that he’d like to tackle a project like Doctor Who someday. When he heard the show was actually casting, he threw himself into research, locking himself in his house and rewatching as much of the revival series as he could. From about 6 in the morning until 6 at night, he binged every episode of Eccleston’s and Tennant’s runs, paying particular attention to Davies’ signature blend of heart, humor, and sci-fi thrills. “I just fell in love with it,” Gatwa explains. “It was so easy to put my phone in airplane mode and just not reply to anyone because this show was taking all my attention.”

But even after all that prep, Gatwa still approached his audition with tempered expectations. “I mean, this is a show that has been running in our country for 60 years,” he explains. “It’s like a British institution. And I just didn’t…” He pauses. “This isn’t in a self-deprecating way, but I just didn’t think it was realistic that I would get the offer.” Instead, he decided to treat the audition as a useful acting exercise. Best case scenario, he reasoned, it would be a good excuse to network with Davies. “I was like, ‘I’m never gonna get it, so I might as well just get comfortable in this audition," he explains. “I took my shoes off and did it a bunch of different ways.”

Davies knew immediately that he had found his next Doctor, and he had to restrain himself from offering Gatwa the role on the spot. “We spent the next week hoping and praying that he hadn’t been offered another job,” Davies says. “That’s the worry: You think anyone that good is being asked to be James Bond at the same time, or he’s got some writers creating their own series.” He remembers literally crossing his fingers as he waited for Gatwa’s response, thinking to himself, Please, please, please. 

Gatwa got the call from his agent just as he was about to walk into his local barber shop. “I just put the phone down and didn’t think about it for about a week,” he says, shaking his head. “The concept that was proposed to me was so meta that I was like, What? There’s no way. I can’t even think about this. I need to do my laundry!” After a week of consideration, he finally felt ready to give an answer: “Eventually, I was like, ‘F---ing hell, I think I might be Doctor Who!’” Gatwa says with a grin. “‘Yes, I’m ready to accept! It’s a no-brainer!’ But it took me about a week to wrap my head around how huge that concept was.”

Once his casting was announced, Gatwa received an outpouring of support from previous Doctors — including Jodie Whittaker, Peter Capaldi, Matt Smith, David Tennant, and Sylvester McCoy. Suddenly, he says, he found himself inducted into an unofficial “Whovian family.” “They’ve all been absolute angels,” he proclaims of his predecessors. “It’s a very small, very exclusive club, and it’s just nice to know that other people have gone through that experience as well. That solidarity from the other Doctors has been really nice.” 

When the eight-episode new season launches in May, it will technically be the 14th season since the show’s 2005 relaunch, and the 40th overall. But the BBC and Disney+ are rebranding it as “season 1” — or “series 1,” if you’re British. (As the Doctor himself would say, it’s all very wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.) 

Davies and Gatwa both promise that no prior knowledge will be necessary to follow the show. Sure, there will be plenty of callbacks and references for diehard fans, but the goal is to create a fresh starting point for newcomers to jump aboard. Gatwa says he found that creative freedom liberating — and a little intimidating. “I had a lot of set expectations as to what the Doctor should be like,” he admits. “I thought, There’s definitely a correct way of doing the Doctor, which is a very British mentality. I found it very confusing in season 1, the fact that they were just trusting me to do what I want with the role. I was like, ‘Surely there’s a right way and a wrong way, and you’ve got to tell me the right way.’ But they were like, ‘Well, it’s just whatever you’re doing.’ It took a long time for that to settle in: They just wanted me to be myself creatively.”

Of course, the Doctor rarely travels alone, and Fifteen spends the season journeying with 19-year-old orphan Ruby Sunday (Gibson), whom he met in the 2023 Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” Gibson, 19 herself, rose to fame on the iconic British soap Coronation Street, and on her last day filming that series, she got a call from her agent, telling her that Davies was a fan and wanted her to audition to play the Doctor’s new companion.

“I was kind of thinking, ‘God, that will be a laugh,’” Gibson says now, shaking her head. “It’ll be a nice little memory for my first audition after Corrie, and I’ll never hear of it again. And that was the start of a long journey, and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.” 

The ageless alien and the 19-year-old orphan might seem like an odd pair, but both the Doctor and Ruby share a wide-eyed wonder. In fact, Gatwa says his Doctor didn’t quite click for him until he met Gibson, and together, they have a delightfully chaotic chemistry, hijacking goblin ships and gallivanting across the universe.

“If we were at school together, we would be such trouble,” Gatwa says of his bond with Gibson. “The teachers would never allow us to sit together. We’re curious and we’d be looking for an adventure somewhere in the room. And I was like: That is the vibe I want for the Doctor.”

“There’s never been a younger sort of relationship, where it’s more like two girls in school, giggling and gossiping,” Gibson adds. “Me and Ncuti have a similar relationship to the Doctor and Ruby, which really helps. It’s just constant laughter and platonic best friends.”

Davies says much of Ruby’s arc was inspired by the “Timeless Child” plot point introduced by previous showrunner Chris Chibnall, where the Doctor is revealed to have not been born on the planet Gallifrey, as formerly believed. Instead, the Doctor was apparently found as a mysterious orphan from an unknown planet, much as Ruby was discovered as a newborn left abandoned on a church doorstep. Their similar histories loom large throughout the season, as both find themself curious about their origins. “That story’s going to be the spine of the whole show,” Davies teases. And despite previous press reports that Gibson would be leaving after this season’s end, she and Davies confirm that Ruby plays a major role in the next season. “We’re heading into season 2, and my God, Ruby Sunday is important to that,” Davies says. “There’s good stuff to come.”

Part of the fun of Doctor Who is how the TARDIS rarely visits the same place twice, which is exactly why Davies was eager to return. “It’s self-regenerating, basically,” the writer explains. “Every week, the TARDIS lands somewhere new — not just on a new planet, but in a new genre. I can step out into a comedy or a thriller or high-stakes action monster movie or a little chamber piece. It has so much scope, and that will never get old.” 

Wandering around the show’s home studio in Cardiff, Wales, emphasizes the sheer scale and scope of the Whoniverse: On one soundstage, a sprawling, futuristic space station can sit next to a mysterious alien tunnel, just steps away from a mid-century office building. Gatwa’s first season promises a variety of adventures throughout space and time — from visiting the Beatles at Abbey Road to a top-secret, Hitchcockian tale written by former Who showrunner Steven Moffat. A number of starry guest actors also join the cast, as Jonathan Groff pops up in a Regency-set episode, while Drag Race alum Jinkx Monsoon makes her debut as a malicious, music-manipulating villain. Jemma Redgrave is also back as UNIT head Kate Stewart, while Langford returns as Mel.

Langford first joined the show in 1986, traveling with Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor and Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh. She made a brief cameo in Whittaker’s final episode in 2022, and here, Mel returns as a full-time UNIT employee, using her alien expertise to help protect the Earth. 

“When I played Mel in the ’80s, I just used to run about and scream at monsters and go, ‘Oh, Doctor!’” Langford, 59, tells EW. “It was at the time when the companions were really just there as a diversion, and I didn’t have that much to do, in many respects. I felt I couldn’t find my place at all.” She adds that Mel was first written as a computer programmer, but in the original run, she “didn’t go anywhere near a computer.” 

She adds with a laugh, “I didn’t touch a single button on the TARDIS! I did nothing that was technical at all. I didn’t even answer a phone. So, it’s wonderful to think that Mel can use her talents and skills, but she also has this love for what the Doctor gave her and all the other companions — this desire to do good in the world.” 

As for Mel’s exploits this season? Langford is tight-lipped, but she does tease that she gets to drive a scooter. “See, that’s a huge change because Mel would’ve been clinging on to the Doctor going, ‘Oh Doctor, no!’” Langford says. “Now, Mel does the driving.” 

Also getting an upgrade? The Doctor’s wardrobe. Throughout the centuries, the Time Lord has adopted some, ahem, eccentric looks, ranging from Tom Baker’s iconic striped scarf to Colin Baker’s flamboyant patchwork coat. Gatwa has established himself as a pioneering presence on the red carpet, and he wanted his Doctor to have a signature style of his own. Early on, he bookmarked photos from Ralph Lauren’s collaboration with Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, a collection that celebrated historically Black colleges and universities. “That was the one costume idea I had because I had in my mind that I was only going to have one costume,” Gatwa explains. “I went in and showed the producers, and they were like, ‘This is lovely. What else have you got?’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’” 

The actor quickly befriended costume designer Pam Downe, and together they dreamed up an entire TARDIS closet for the Doctor. “She laid out her sketches on the table, and I saw kilts and skirts and all kinds of gender-pushing, societal-pushing outfits,” he recalls. “And I was like, ‘Yes, let’s do all of them.’” As a result, the Fifteenth Doctor might have more costume changes than all his predecessors combined, swapping fits depending on the time period — or planet. Early highlights include a red velvet Regency fit and a meticulously tailored pinstripe suit for a visit to the 1960s. EW can also reveal an exclusive look at two of the Doctor’s outfits from season 2, an elaborate tartan jacket with a kilt and a stunning all-white look. 

The result, Gatwa hopes, is a sartorial spread that nods to the Doctor’s varied roots. “The show is so quintessentially British, and it’s a show that has accumulated the power to reflect where Britain is societally,” he explains. “I was like, ‘It would be really interesting to travel through all the subcultures of Britain that it’s had in the past up to now through his clothes.’ This character represents the U.K. in a weird way, almost like Captain Britain. So, how do we tell that story through fashion?”

While enjoying an expanded budget — and an expanded closet — the team also committed to maintaining everything that makes Who feel like Who. For Davies, that meant leaning into the show’s inherent warmth and optimism, something he says other TV franchises lack. (The Doctor’s distaste for guns is well-documented, and when EW visited the set in March, we caught a glimpse of a scene where the Doctor rewires technology to cleverly disarm a foe.) “I thought that right now in 2024, we need a hero with more heart,” Davies explains. “I’m not a fan of the ones that slice and dice. Doctor Who is the opposite of heroes who pick up a gun and shoot, or a lightsaber and kill. It’s a marvelously pacifist show.” 

Still, the cast hopes that they get to meet some of the Doctor’s most iconic foes. Gibson says she’d love to do an episode with the Weeping Angels, while Gatwa eagerly awaits his first clash with the Daleks. “I’ve heard chats about me not ever facing a Dalek,” he says indignantly. “I’d be so angry if that’s the case! By the time that I’m done with Doctor Who, I better have faced a Dalek.” At this point, Gatwa gets so incensed by the idea of not meeting everyone’s favorite plunger-wielding salt shakers that he accidentally tosses his lip balm across the room: “What on earth would be the point of me being Doctor Who without facing a Dalek!” 

Also on Gatwa’s wish list? Another dance scene. The Fifteenth Doctor charmed Ruby (and fans) by hitting the dance floor in the Christmas special, and after performing “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars with Barbie costar Ryan Gosling, he says he’s ready to put that choreography experience to use on Who. “I need a big dance number!” he says. “That’s what I’m going to put into the universe: I need the Doctor to have a big, fierce dance routine that, like, destroys a monster with twerking. Or maybe some death drops, and that’s what will drop the monster.” 

Hopefully, there will be plenty of time for Daleks and dancing. Gatwa is confirmed to star in at least two seasons of Who, with his second season shooting now. (Andor actress Varada Sethu is also joining as a new companion in season 2.) After that? Davies isn’t sure, but he knows that the Doctor will endure long after he and Gatwa have passed the keys to another TARDIS team. “One day, people will be sitting here discussing its 100th anniversary, its 150th, its 200th,” the writer says. “We all might be gaseous holograms by then, but it’ll still be going.”

In the meantime, Gatwa says he’s keenly aware that he’s the “incumbent,” just the latest in a long line of actors to tackle one of sci-fi’s most iconic roles. In typical Doctor fashion, he has no idea what his future might hold. But for now, he’s going to take the TARDIS — his TARDIS — and fly as far as he can. 

"It wasn’t until I stepped on set and saw the TARDIS that I was like, ‘This is all real now,’” he recalls before letting out that bright, brilliant laugh. “My heart started racing because I just thought, ‘That’s the blue box. And it’s mine now.’” 

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Directed by Kristen Harding & Alison Wild

Photographs by Christina Ebenezer

Motion - DP: Simon Plunket; 1st AC: Matt Farrant; 2nd AC: James Tilyard; Jib Op: Mike Drury; Jib Technician: Harry Denny; Gaffer: Matthew Bohun; Sparks: Eliot Henri Morris, Leo Naessens, Ryan Delahunty; Trainee Sparks: Timmy Boomer, Joseph Tesfamarieam 

Set - Production Designer: Trish Stephenson/Patricia McMahon; Set Assistants: Hannah Knowles, Anya Thomas, Daniel Underwood; Clock Operators: Richard Guy, Ben Flower; Props: Jonathan Davies 

Photo - 1st Assistant: Guillaume Mercier; 2nd Assistant: Shalom Olimah; Digital Tech: Camila Almeida

Production - Producer: Susannah Phillips/Truro Productions; Production Manager: Kate Edmunds; PA: Spyro Kotsaftis; Runner: Tallulah Crumplin

Post-Production: Color Correction: Carlos Flores/Forager; VFX: Carlos Morales/Forager; Design: Chuck Kerr; GFX: Hannah Namnoum/Forager; Composer: Murray Gold; Sound Design: Kristen Harding

Ncuti - Wardrobe: Kitty Carin Boyd; Grooming: Linda Brown; Barber: Chris Okonta; PA: Dani Wilson

Video Interview - Producer: Charlotte Johnston; Lighting Camera Op: Oscar Deeks; Camera Op: Will Mitchell; Sound Op: Glenn Street; Teleprompter Op: Fiona Aves; Associate Video Producer: Morgan Sanguedolce; Editor: David Rice

EW Creative - Photo Director: Alison Wild; Head of Video: Kristen Harding; Creative Director: Chuck Kerr

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