Doctor Who has had quite a year, between star Ncuti Gatwa departing after only two seasons as the titular Time Lord and Disney+ axing its distribution deal for the BBC series. However, one of its most talked about moments came at the end of Gatwa’s final episode, in which he regenerated into Billie Piper.

Hardly a stranger to Doctor Who fans, Piper played the iconic companion Rose Tyler for the first two seasons of the show’s 2005 reboot, before making a few more guest appearances throughout the early 2000s. Despite her popularity, the idea of her being the Doctor was met with a lot of criticism among many fans, contrasted by others who were intrigued by the twist.

Per Radio Times, divisive showrunner Chris Chibnall, who led the show during Jodie Whitaker’s 13th Doctor, weighed in on the final moments of Gatwa’s tenure, though he declined to get into specifics of his opinion. According to the former executive producer of Doctor Who, he actively avoided seeking out spoilers from current showrunner Russell T. Davies.

“I didn’t have any clue when I was watching it,” Chibnall said of Gatwa regenerating into Piper. “The only thing I knew was that Jodie was in that episode. Because also, when I finished, I was very, very clear to Russell that I didn’t want to know anything.” He then added that he “love[s] being back as a viewer again.”

“I never ask, and I never want to know,” Chibnall added. “That’s what takes you back to where you [started] as a five-year-old, or whatever; You’re there watching Doctor Who and to be back in that position, having had your own TARDIS, in inverted commas – I didn’t have a real TARDIS – but it’s lovely to then go back and go, ‘Oh, what’s happening now?’“

Chibnall also addressed the surprise regeneration of Whitaker into fan favorite David Tennant in his second run as the Doctor. “So I really, actually didn’t want to know that Jodie was going to regenerate into David,” he continued. “But they were like, ‘You have to know this because you’re an exec on this episode.‘”

Is Billie Piper Really Playing The 16th Doctor In Doctor Who?

Though Chibnall himself kept his comments about Piper’s surprise casting nonspecific, fans have widely speculated about what her role in the series would be and whether she truly was going to be the next Doctor. Given Piper has returned to Doctor Who in a role aside from Rose before, appearing in the 50th anniversary special as a holographic projection of the Moment, it is not entirely out of the question that this new stint on the show could be either Rose or another iteration of the Doctor.

“All I can say is I was approached very last-minute, and I can’t talk about in what capacity, but I found it very emotional to film and I think it’s a really great ending,” Piper said, addressing the twist. “As in, I just found it quite moving, and it was really fun to film because it had such a sort of cloak and dagger feeling about getting it made. So, yeah, I have to lie a lot about anything to do with Doctor Who, it seems.”

Regardless of which role Piper will play, Doctor Who is slated to return sometime after the 2026 Christmas special. Following the end of the BBC’s deal with Disney, it is unknown which service will act as their global streaming partner.