Jodie Whittaker might be handing in her TARDIS keys next autumn after three seasons of Doctor Who – but what about her travelling companions?
While many fans have assumed that Whittaker’s exit means that co-stars John Bishop and Mandip Gill will also be leaving in 2022, new interviews with Radio Times suggest that the actors are at least open to travelling with another Doctor, if the job were offered to them.
“I think the official line is you say you don’t know, but I genuinely don’t know,” Bishop tells the new issue of Radio Times, on sale from Tuesday 26th October.
“In some ways, this was so good I wouldn’t want to risk trying to do it again. I just feel so lucky to have had that time with those people.
“But also, if someone phones and says Dan Lewis has got a place with the new Doctor, you think… it’s a conversation to be had, isn’t it?”
Gill, similarly, said “never say never” when it came to her future in the series, adding that she was looking forward to seeing Russell T Davies return as showrunner from 2023.
“Everyone’s excited about Russell,” she says. “For me, it’s so exciting and a relief to know it’s going on in safe hands.”
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Still, fans shouldn’t write Bishop and Gill into Doctor Who series 14 just yet. Both made clear that they’d heard no official word on their characters continuing with the next Doctor, with Gill implying that she was expecting to see new companions for a new Time Lord.
“When I started, I didn’t realise how significant it was taking over from other people, but now it’s happening to me,” she tells RT.
“You’re not part of it, in that you don’t know what’s happening. Who are the companions? What are they going to do? I’m going to watch it, be nosey and think, ‘How’s it different to ours?’”
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For more, check out our interviews with Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, John Bishop and Jacob Anderson in the new Doctor Who preview issue of Radio Times, on sale from Tuesday 26th October.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One on Sunday 31st October. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.