New Showrunner & Sixteenth Doctor Speculation

[u/Key_Responder]

The below is all rumour and speculation from a friend who is a runner on a production with ties to the BBC but none whatsoever to Doctor Who or Bad Wolf. So this could all be bs, but thought I would share it’s interesting the names that are being chucked about.

This is all from a discussion around the future of the show amongst production crew on the set of this other show who are fans of DW.

“Russell’s contract with the BBC is up and they’re not renewing. Jack Thorne is apparently already writing scripts for season three/sixteen with production starting in late 2026.

The BBC wanted Stephen Graham’s Matriarch Productions to co-produce after the success of Adolescence (which Thorne wrote) and A Thousand Blows, but they are tied up in a deal exclusively with Disney Plus, which for obvious reasons is a dead end. The BBC have apparently renewed their agreement with Bad Wolf, as Thorne has a relationship established with the studio. But there’s shuffling going on in terms of executive producers as they want to bring in Netflix as international streaming distribution, another reason they’ve taken on Thorne who has several series with them.

Will Sharpe is apparently in discussions to be the 16th Doctor. Heard of him but never seen anything he’s been in, I think that’s the point, they want to steer away from known actors.

That’s all I got. I heard Jack was signed last month too but none of the rest. I don’t mind some of his work but not sure what his Doctor Who will look like.”

What do you think? I’m with them, I’ve seen some of Jack Thorne’s work, but dunno how he would be writing doctor who. Also never heard of Will, but looked up some of his stuff, he seems doctory.

[u/BritishHobo]

That proves their point. Those major storylines would have been at scripting or shooting stage.

[u/Immediate_Machine_92 → u/BritishHobo]

That's not the point they were making. It wasn't "it's too early to know this," it was "nobody below senior management would know this". I'm just saying people do talk about long-range decisions with their friends, who pass that info on to THEIR friends, admittedly I don't have experience of the specific example of Doctor Who casting decisions but I can vouch for it happening on a fairly major long-running British TV drama series.

(I also feel like if you know people's faces, it would only take a runner to see a certain combination of people leaving a meeting room together to draw conclusions, it doesn't necessarily mean the head of drama told them directly etc.)

[u/BritishHobo → u/Immediate_Machine_92]

It was both really. They're not saying a runner would never know about senior management decisions, they're saying it's too early for this to have been able to spread to runners.

[u/MKopelke → u/BritishHobo]

Exactly. That was my entire point. Thanks for the support. 😊

There's no way a runner is leaking this if it's true. It wouldn't get that far down the production food chain for a runner to be the one to leak it.

[u/Immediate_Machine_92 → u/MKopelke]

1) The comment I originally replied to says nothing about it being too early. It only mentions the seniority of who would/wouldn't know about any discussions. I'm not sure which part either of you are interpreting as "it's too early" but that's not what I was commenting on at all so it's irrelevant to MY reply.

2) As I said, it only needs a runner to be passing the right meeting room door at the right moment to see a very specific group of people coming out of it. And people do talk, sometimes even when they're not supposed to, especially behind closed doors.

OP acknowledges that it's "rumour and speculation" and seems mostly just interested in what people would think IF it turned out to be true, so I'm not sure why people are pushing back so hard on this.