Ever since it was rebooted in 2005, the classic British science fiction series Doctor Who has continued to gain worldwide popularity, and its upcoming Season 15 is currently shaping up to be its biggest one yet. Showrunner Russell T. Davies shared an update in Doctor Who Magazine about the upcoming 2025 season and beyond, revealing that Varda Sethu will debut as the Doctor’s new companion, sharing additional details about upcoming episodes. But that’s only a part of the reveal, as Davies revealed much more.

According to Davies, Season 15 of Doctor Who is currently scheduled to air in May 2025. The filming of Ncuti Gatwa‘s second season as the eponymous Doctor began in October 2023 and concluded in May this year — a wrap that Davies shared on his social media. Several months later, in August, the executive producer of the show, Jane Tranter, shared that the Bad Wolf production company was, at the time, in the very early days of the edit for the new season, so it was quite obvious that Season 15 won’t air/stream for some time.

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Still, a May 2025 release date doesn’t seem so far away, especially with Christmas specials just around the corner, so there are still plenty of reasons to be excited for the next season of Doctor Who on BBC and, as of recently, Disney+. With that said, more news is going to be uncovered as the release date for Season 15 approaches, and we should have a somewhat better understanding of things after the Christmas Specials finally air.

Gatwa confirmed that he will resume his portrayal of the Fifteenth Doctor for his second season. The actor mentioned that theater is his passion and that, despite it being less financially rewarding, he plans to return to the stage after he’s done with Doctor Who Season 15. This also means that Christopher Eccleston, who portrayed the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in one of the longest-running series in television history, was the only actor to only stick around for one year.

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But what is the Doctor without his companions? Despite her departure from the TARDIS during the final episode of Season 14, titled “Empire of Death,” Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) is also scheduled to appear in the upcoming season. The extent of her stay, however, remains a mystery. But we can assume that she’ll appear in at least a couple of episodes. With that said, the Doctor is also getting a new companion because Varada Sethu is back.

Now, despite playing Mundy Flynn in Season 14, Davies confirmed that the actor will assume a completely different role as the entirely new companion, Belinda Chandra, in the very first episode of the new season. This isn’t all that strange, given the show’s history. Clara Oswald made an early appearance before becoming a companion, while Peter Capaldi was cast as the Doctor in 2013 after portraying Lobus Caecillius in a 2008 episode, “Fires of Pompei” (Season 4 of Doctor Who), and John Frobisher in an episode of Torchwood (a Doctor Who spin-off series).

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In a more recent announcement, actor Archie Panjabi of CBS’s The Good Wife has been cast in the new season of Doctor Who in an undisclosed villainous role. However, the details regarding Panjabi’s character remain under tight wraps. In our previous discussion regarding her casting in the series, we mentioned that the actor might assume the role of the Master or anyone closely tied to the Doctor’s archenemy. The last we saw him, he was imprisoned in the Celestial Toymaker’s gold tooth, which was knocked loose and picked up by a female hand.

It’s entirely possible for Panjabi to portray the Master or the person whose hand picked up the golden tooth. She might even portray a grander villain, the One Who Waits, the villainous figure from whom even the Celestial Toymaker cowered and ran. But, as previously stated, everything’s under tight wraps, so we’ll have to wait for Season 15 to learn more.

Lastly, actor Anita Dobson is set to reprise her role of Mrs. Flood, who will play an even bigger role in the upcoming narrative, following a few shocking teasers in Season 15.

Outside of what we mentioned, there’s really not much else that has been confirmed when it comes to Doctor Who Season 15 — or should we say Season 2? One of the biggest changes that were made with the official start of the Disney+ era of Doctor Who is that the season numbering has been reset. The upcoming season still remains Season 15 canonically; Season 14 was technically Season 1, making Season 15 technically Season 2 of the new-new Doctor Who series.

The reason behind the season count reset isn’t yet known, but it has provided the show with not two but three starting points in its canon. Perhaps the showrunners thought that having two reboots sounded less scary than having 880 episodes for someone who just took an interest in the show. Doctor Who Season 15 — or Season 2, depending on where you stand — is scheduled to launch in May 2025.