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Disney has pulled out of its Doctor Who partnership with the BBC, with fans left to wait until the end of 2026 for the next episode of the sci-fi favourite. The US streaming giant’s decision to no longer air the programme means Doctor Who won’t return to TV screens until Christmas next year, with a special episode penned by original showrunner Russell T Davies. A Doctor Who spin-off series, The War Between the Land and the Sea, which was co-produced by Disney, will still air later this year, with the BBC insisting it is “fully committed” to Doctor Who’s return. “We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course,” Lindsay Salt, director of drama at the BBC, said. The breakup marks a major setback for the BBC, which announced its partnership with Disney in 2022, claiming that the deal would transform Doctor Who into a “global franchise” reaching 150 countries. Despite an estimated budget of around £10m per episode, viewer numbers for the most recent season of the programme fell in the UK by an average of 1.5 million each episode compared to the previous one, Deadline reported. By the time the series makes its return in 2026, there’ll have been a 19-month gap in the series since its two-part season finale in May 2025 that saw Ncuti Gatwa quit his role as the Doctor after just two seasons. When the Sex Education star stepped down as the 15th Doctor, he said the series “demands a lot of you, physically and emotionally and mentally”. He has since hinted, though, that he may appear in a final battle. The BBC is yet to announce the show’s exact return date – or the identity of the new doctor. However, in a shock twist, Gatwa regenerated as former companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) in the season finale. Piper neither confirmed nor denied she could be taking on the role of the Doctor, telling fans they’ll “just have to wait and see” what the significance of her return to the sci-fi show is. Spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea is now set to air on BBC One and iPlayer later this year, with Russell Tovey (Being Human) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle) taking on lead roles. Created by Davies, the five-part series will see the return of classic Doctor Who villains “the Sea Devils”, who were first featured on the programme in 1972. “When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered,” an official description reads. “With the entire population at risk, UNIT steps into action as the land and sea wage war.” Davies explained: “There’s a race that lives beneath the oceans. They wake up and they see the state of the oceans – what we have put in it, we have wrecked the place – and it’s war. War on an epic scale.”
