{"id":534018,"date":"2025-10-28T20:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/534018\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:54:13","slug":"disney-exits-bbc-partnership-2026-christmas-special-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/534018\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney+ Exits BBC Partnership, 2026 Christmas Special Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe fate of \u201cDoctor Who<\/a>\u201d has been revealed, with Disney+<\/a> officially exiting the series after its two-season partnership with the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter months of speculation as to where the long-running sci-fi show would be headed following lead Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s departure in May<\/a> and without a Season 3 renewal, the BBC has announced that it will be moving forward with a new Christmas special in 2026 penned by series stalwart Russell T Davies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming \u2018The War Between the Land and the Sea,’\u201d Lindsay Salt, director of drama at the BBC, said in a statement. \u201cThe BBC remains fully committed to \u2018Doctor Who,\u2019 which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026. We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe War Between the Land and the Sea,\u201d a \u201cDoctor Who\u201d spinoff starring Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, is due on Disney+ as well as BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year. A brand-new \u201cDoctor Who\u201d animated series is also in development at CBeebies, the BBC\u2019s kids\u2019 channel. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt remains to be seen who will be stepping into the iconic Doctor\u2019s shoes after Gatwa\u2019s two-season stint. The Season 2 finale saw Gatwa\u2019s Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper, who previously played companion Rose Tyler in Series 1 (2005) and Series 2 (2006), though it has not been confirmed if she will be the next Doctor.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaid Tyler in a statement to the BBC after the Season 2 finale: \u201cIt\u2019s no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return to the Whoniverse as I have some of my best memories there, so to be given the opportunity to step back on that Tardis one more time was just something I couldn\u2019t refuse, but who, how, why and when, you\u2019ll just have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fate of \u201cDoctor Who\u201d has been revealed, with Disney+ officially exiting the series after its two-season partnership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,823,824,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-534018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-disney","10":"tag-doctor-who","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}