Production is underway on Doctor Who series 11 at the moment, with the first block of episodes for Jodie Whittaker’s opening series of the Doctor filmed.

The identity of the writing staff for Doctor Who series 11 remains a secret, though, outside of incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall and his team. But according to Mark Gatiss, we’re set to get “all new people” writing the episodes.

Gatiss revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he was actually asked to return to write for the show by Chibnall. “”Chris Chibnall very sweetly emailed me and said he’d love me to continue because I’m a big part of the Doctor Who family, which I was very touched by”, he said. He turned the opportunity down, but admitted “at the moment, I don’t know. Never say never. But I’ve had such a brilliant time and I feel very blessed to have worked on it for 10 years. It might just be time for someone else to have a go”.

Gatiss added that “it’s all new people” working on the show, and that Chibnall “has a totally different way of working”.

It sounds as though Gatiss is leaving the door open for a possible return in the future. For now, he’s “very excited about not knowing anything and it’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to say that, literally, when it starts, I won’t know a thing about the new approach – the music, the title sequence, the inside of the TARDIS, the stories, the writers. I don’t know anything!”

Gatiss appears in this year’s Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time.