It’s Official: Doctor Who Is Returning But Without Disney

Whovians, take a big, deep breath. After months of wild speculation, crazy rumors, professional back-biting, awkward questions, endless debate, and general sturm und drang within the fandom, we can finally say it: Doctor Who is coming back, and the BBC has officially announced a Christmas special for 2026. To what is likely the surprise of no one, however, it’ll be doing it without Disney, who has reportedly declined to continue their partnership of the last two seasons and will cut ties following the broadcast of the forthcoming spinoff, The War Between the Land and the Sea.

To say we all expected this is something of an understatement, but the official renewal news will come as a welcome relief to almost everyone with even a passing affection for the show. The BBC has been remarkably firm in its commitment to the series, insisting that it was “going nowhere” almost any time it had the chance to comment on the subject. But Doctor Who has existed in a bizarre limbo since season 15 ended earlier this year with a chaotic (and generally not great) finale that saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerate, brought back former companion Billie Piper in a bizarre and still undisclosed role, and left a murky and messy path forward for the 60-something sci-fi classic. And fans have been… let’s just call it, unhappy about the uncertainty surrounding the show’s future. 

Now, we can all relax. The BBC has already announced that Doctor Who will return for a Christmas special in 2026, and confirmed that they “will announce plans for the next series in due course to ensure the Doctor’s adventures continue.”  This is probably about as much as they can tell us, given that we have no idea who the next Doctor will be, and the legalities of the Disney situation likely meant that the folks behind the scenes haven’t exactly been working on a casting search of late. (Get ready for eight million thinkpieces on who will or should play Sixteen, since we all know it’s not Piper.) 

As for what we do know, it’s sparse, but worth thinking about. The 2026 Christmas special will be penned by current showrunner Russell T. Davies, indicating that he’s still holding the reins of the TARDIS for at least the foreseeable future. (Does that mean he’ll still be showrunner when the next full series lands? Maybe! But maybe not!) Next year’s installment will have to do quite a bit of clean-up in terms of explaining whatever the heck happened at the end of “The Reality War,” deal with the Piper situation, and introduce whoever the next Doctor turns out to be. And what that will ultimately look like is anyone’s guess. 

Then, of course, there are the practical considerations. Disney+ not only provided the funding that helped the show look better than it ever has, but it also served as Doctor Who’s global streaming home outside of the U.K. and Ireland. It seems extremely unlikely that the BBC won’t be able to find a new broadcast partner for an IP that’s this well-known, even though the most recent Disney seasons reportedly didn’t perform all that well ratings-wise. But, it’s going to be concerning for some that fans have no idea where they’ll be able to watch the show when it does return next year. (And no one wants to go back to the days of months-delayed airings in the U.S., or worse, VPN dependence.) 

This is a lot to say that there’s still so much we don’t know about what’s next for the franchise. But we do know the most important thing — that the show will be back, the Doctor will carry on, and we’ll be able to travel the stars in the TARDIS once more. Even if we have to wait a little longer to do so than we might like.