Ncuti Gatwa joins Brian May and his wife Anita Dobson at the star-studded Series 15 premiere
The stars were out in force for the premiere of the 15th series of Doctor Who in London on Monday.
Ncuti Gatwa, 32, who plays Time Lord, led the stars arriving on the red carpet to celebrate the show’s new series.
Other celebs who showed up to lend their support to the sci-fi show included Queen guitarist Brian May, his wife Anita Dobson.
Doctor Who follows the character’s continued adventures around time and space.
The 15th series is said to feature more dangers to planet Earth, with the trailer suggesting that the whole of reality is also at risk.
Ncuti, who wore one of the doctor’s characteristic blue jackets, was joined at Leicester Square by a host of famous faces.
These included Varada Sethu, also 32, who plays the doctor’s latest companion in the long-running show.
The star-studded premiere comes amid rumours that the show, which has been an on-and-off staple of British TV since 1963, could soon be shelved.
Rumours circulated claiming that Ncuti, who rose to fame in Netflix’s Sex Education, was planning a move stateside to focus on other acting projects.
A source told The Sun:
‘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.’
They continued:
‘The show has been poorly managed in recent years.
‘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.’
This prompted the BBC to issue a statement denying the possibility that Doctor Who could once again be shelved, as it was between 1989 and 2005.
A spokeswoman for Doctor Who said:
‘Doctor Who has not been shelved.
‘As we have previously stated, the decision on series 16 will be made after series 15 airs.
‘The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes – and exactly half of those still have to transmit.’
