Doctor Who season 15: BBC denies cancellation rumors
Is Doctor Who going to be canceled after the upcoming season 15? We know that this is a rumor that has surfaced here and there the past couple of weeks and now, it is present once more.
This time around, there is a report from The Sun claiming that the BBC is looking to shelve the series for a period of time for a number of different reasons.
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Here is more of what the publications “sources” have to say about the future of the series, and also the possible exit of star Ncuti Gatwa:
“Ncuti doesn’t want to be tied to the series beyond this and plans to relocate to Los Angeles with several Hollywood projects standing by for him … His team also see a lot of fan backlash from the series, and don’t want the perception of him still being The Doctor to get in the way of any future work.
“The show has been poorly managed in recent years and there’s a lot of people who’ve been working on this show for years and now being cast aside due to poor leadership … People warned some episodes were getting too caught up on an agenda rather than telling a story and those people got shouted down, ignored.”
And now, the denial
Speaking to the Radio Times, the BBC was quick to state that nothing has changed with their philosophy on the show’s future:
“This story is incorrect … Doctor Who has not been shelved. As we have previously stated, the decision on season 3 [season numbering for the series was reset for the third time with Gatwa’s debut season] will be made after season 2 airs.”
(As a reminder, the show decided to call last season “season 1,” though many fans still refer to it as season 14.)
Where do things really stand at present?
Honestly, we do not believe that this is all that difficult of a question to answer. The Sun report does not seem to focus so much on the show’s international performance and to us, that’s actually the most important factor in the future since Disney+ helped to significantly up the show’s budget. Also, if Gatwa does choose to leave, wouldn’t there just be a new Doctor? (We should note that Ncuti himself has expressed interest in doing another season beyond season 15.)
Obviously lower ratings are an issue, and we could see a break of around 2-3 years after season 15 if there is some sort of massive revamp. However, we have a hard time thinking that a company would allow such a stalwart franchise to be gone longer than that in this current TV era.
Related – When will Doctor Who season 15 end up premiering?
Do you think that the future of Doctor Who is in question at all?
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