Disney+ has called off the Doctor. The streaming service will no longer partner with the BBC to produce and air the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, bringing an end to a two-season partnership. An upcoming five-episode spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, will be the last bit of Doctor Who produced by Disney following 26 episodes of the flagship series.
Doctor Who, an iconic British sci-fi series about an alien Time Doctor who travels through time and space in a ship that looks like a police box, the TARDIS, premiered way back in 1963. In 2022, Disney announced a deal to produce two seasons of the series and stream the episodes on Disney+. Actor Ncuti Gatwa played the Doctor in the two seasons Disney co-produced.
It was an effort to increase the stateside popularity of Doctor Who, which has a real but niche fandom, though rumors had circulated for months that the deal wasn’t proving to be as much of a success as Disney would have hoped. The streaming service doesn’t make exact viewership numbers public, but Doctor Who never made Nielsen’s list of the top 10 original streaming shows, nor was it a hit on the level of other Disney+ IP series, like Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ratings across the pond weren’t great for the BBC either, according to Deadline. Gatwa left the show at the end of the latest season in May.
Given that each episode reportedly cost $13.3 million to make, it’s perhaps not shocking that Disney isn’t going to continue its partnership with Doctor Who. The Disney seasons and the spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, which is expected to premiere next year, will remain available to stream on Disney+, though where stateside fans will be able to watch future seasons remains a mystery for now.
This Does Not Mean the End of Doctor Who, According to the BBC
Disney+ may no longer be involved with Doctor Who, but the show will go on. The BBC confirmed that the Doctor will return for a Christmas special in 2026 written by showrunner Russell T. Davies.
“We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between the Land and the Sea,” Lindsay Salt, director of drama at the BBC, said in a statement. “The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, 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.”
