‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special: Justin Chatwin on playing The Ghost

Christmastime is almost here within the world of “Doctor Who,” and with that in mind, we’re very much happy to start getting some of the celebrations set right now! “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” airs in just two days, and we’re very much pleased to have a few more details on it now — starting with the super-fun photo above of The Ghost (a.k.a. Grant Gordon), the superhero at the center of the episode played by “Shameless” alum Justin Chatwin. He’s seen here dining with his crush, reporter Lucy Fletcher (Charity Wakefield), and you do have to wonder almost right away how in the world he’s able to eat while sporting that mask so close to his mouth.

Playing this role for Chatwin (who wasn’t too familiar with the show at the time of filming) proved to be something that he very much enjoyed, and in speaking about if further (per Yahoo!), he mentioned Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man as inspirations:

“There’s a sweet quality to my character, and Tobey brought a sweet quality to Peter Parker as well … I always thought of Grant as being a daffodil. He doesn’t have the courage to say what he means, so he creates another persona to do everything he can’t.”

Having this character be light and funny should also provide another great dimension to this special, given that in general we do consider this to be a time of year when lighthearted television works best. Whether you are in Britain or in America, it feels right either way to say that this has been a difficult year at times, and for this particular holiday season, we’ll be looking for a little bit of escapism from the outside world. Hopefully, “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” provides that for many people out there and shows itself to be worthy of a good year-long wait.

If you are interested in particular in getting some other news now when it comes to “Doctor Who,” we suggest that you head over to the link here right now. (Photo: BBC.)