Doctor Who Will Not Be Regenerating At Disney+

Disney has called an end to their Doctor Who partnership with the BBC, and the future of the Time Lord is in limbo.

Let’s get in front of it right off the bat: Doctor Who is not cancelled. Well, not yet, anyway, But it looks like the venerable British sci-fi icon will not be appearing again on Disney+ anytime soon. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Disney+ has ended their Doctor Who global distribution partnership with the BBC, which means the future of the series is murkier than usual.

There is new Doctor Who scheduled, though, although you’ll be waiting a bit. A new Christmas Special is penciled in for 2026 under the stewardship of series veteran Russell T. Davies, which will presumably deal with the end-of-season cliffhanger that saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler.

The two seasons and related specials produced in partnership with Disney+ will remain on the streaming platform, along with the upcoming five part spin-off series The War Between The Land And The Sea.

Lindsay Salt, Director of Drama at the BBC, said in a statement, “We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between the Land and the Sea.

“The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026.

“We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”

Interesting stuff! Disney, to their credit, pumped a lot of money and effort into projecting Doctor Who onto a larger stage – reportedly in excess of £100 million – but the series never attracted much of an audience in comparison the tentpole franchise like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not that Doctor Who doesn’t have fans in the US, but mainstream recognition has always eluded the property. Pretty much the same thing happened with the much-ballyhooed, much-derided 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann and Eric Roberts. That was intended as a backdoor pilot for a US-produced series, and instead it put Doctor Who in the ground for a almost a decade.

The real question for Australian audiences is where the international rights wind up. The ABC has traditionally been the home of Doctor Who since the year dot, and the series winding up paywalled on a streaming service didn’t sit too well with a lot of fans. That’s not being cheap, to my mind, although cost is certainly a factor for some viewers. It’s more of a cultural thing – you watch Doctor Who on the ABC, because the ABC is where you watch Doctor Who. Odds are good that the Doctor returns to our national broadcaster, but we may be waiting a while for confirmation.

As for the series as a whole, I wouldn’t expect an official cancellation, but maybe a fallow year or two while the BBC get their ducks in a row. This is another case of a really valuable property that the people in charge aren’t quite sure what to do with (see also: Wars, Star), but that means the TARDIS won’t be up on blocks for long, even if its destination is in doubt.