'Doctor Who' Season 14 Adds More Cast & Looks for Gatwa's Forthcoming Doctor

Doctor Who is about halfway through filming its fourteenth season, which is due to air sometime after the show’s 60th anniversary specials, likely in early 2024. Luckily, there has been plenty of exciting news to tide us over while we wait for Ncuti Gatwa’s debut as the Doctor. From filming locations to casting announcements, here’s what we know about Season 14 so far.

The series has been spotted filming on location around Wales, in Gold Cross Pub and Pryzm Nightclub in Cardiff, a church graveyard in Newport, and on an outdoor path in Pembrokeshire. Far be it from us to speculate what adventures these locations could hold, but Gold Cross Pub was decked out with Christmas décor, hinting at the festive special that showrunner Russell T. Davies has promised.

Photos snapped by onlookers and shared across social media showed Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in costumes different from the one that was announced in December. Gatwa has shown himself to be exceedingly stylish on red carpets and across his social media, so perhaps his penchant for fashion will rub off on his character.

The cast of Season 14 is shaping up to be impressive, including Jemma Redgrave and Aneurin Barnard, who were announced in early 2023. More recently, the BBC announced two more actors who will appear in Season 14: Anita Dobson (EastEnders) and Michelle Greenidge (It’s a Sin). This casting announcement was accompanied by photos of both actors in front of blue doors. In a post on his Instagram, Davies gushed about the two actors and teased fans by saying, “But what is the significance of the doors?” We’ll see if the doors really are some sort of easter egg, or if Davies is simply trolling fans.

We now know all four directors for Season 14, which will be eight episodes long plus a festive special. That may sound like a short season, but never fear, Davies reassured fans in Doctor Who Magazine 585 that despite the shorter-than-usual season, “We have plans, and that’s a promise!”

Filming has been split into four filming blocks, with two episodes each directed by Dylan Holmes Williams (Servant), Mark Tonderai (The Mysterious Benedict Society), Julie Anne Robinson (Bridgerton), and Ben Chessell (The Great). Fans may remember Mark Tonderai as the director of Season 11 episodes “The Ghost Monument” and “Rosa.” Davies had no shortage of compliments for Julie Anne Robinson. Speaking to Doctor Who Magazine in Issue 588, he said, “Julie Ann is a dream piece of crewing for me, because I’ve wanted to work with her ever since sitting in awe of BBC’s Blackpool… Julie Anne comes with the best reference ever—an actor called David Tennant who starred in Blackpool and loves her!” The production team was similarly enthusiastic to welcome Ben Chessell. Producer Phil Collinson said in the same article, “[Block Two of filming] takes the whole show into genuinely new territory. We were all wondering how to achieve what’s on the page, but Ben [Chessell] has marched in to show us how!”

Writers for Season 14 have not yet been announced, but The Mirror reported that former showrunner Steven Moffat will make his return to the show as a writer. Moffat under Davies was responsible for some of the most well-loved stories of Davies’ original tenure as showrunner, including “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances,” “Blink,” and “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead.” If Moffat is indeed returning to the show, the Moffat-Davies duo will be unstoppable.

The finer details of Season 14 are still under wraps, but the show’s creators have assured fans that Gatwas’s first season will be nothing short of spectacular. Davies is particularly excited about the fourth episode of Season 14, which he said in an interview on BBC Radio 2 is “one of the greatest things I’ve ever made in my life.” That’s a big claim coming from the writer behind such stellar episodes as “Midnight” and “The Waters of Mars” (not to mention non-Who gems like It’s a Sin and Years and Years). VFX coordinator Siân Reynish has also teased in Doctor Who Magazine 588 that some of the sets and camera work of Season 14 will be unlike anything in the show’s history.

All of this is just the beginning. Davies recently said in an interview on the Table Manners podcast that he expects to work on the series for “years.” With news already brewing about spinoffs and 60th-anniversary bonus content, Davies certainly has his work cut out for him in the years to come.

Doctor Who will next air in the fall of 2023 with the 60th Anniversary trio of specials, followed by a Christmas Special in December. Season 14 is expected out in 2024.