Jodie Whittaker’s era as the 13th Doctor is coming to an end next year during the BBC’s 100th anniversary celebrations. The first woman to play Doctor Who is ending her tenure with the six-parter Flux and three specials in 2022. And just as with James Bond, speculation is rife over who will be next to inhabit the TARDIS. Pirates of the Caribbean star Kevin McNally told Express Online exclusively about his new role in this season’s finale.
Actors like Olly Alexander and Michael Sheen are currently the bookies’ favourites to be the 14th Doctor. Whoever takes over will debut in time for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary in 2023, with Russell T Davies returning as showrunner.
Express.co.uk recently caught up with Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean Mr Gibbs co-star Kevin McNally, who shared how fans congratulated him on being cast as the latest incarnation of the Time Lord after news broke about him sapping the Black Pearl for the TARDIS.
The 65-year-old is playing a mystery character in Doctor Who: Flux, starting this Sunday evening.
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McNally added: “You have to be so careful what you say with these very popular shows y’know.”
The star’s mystery part in Doctor Who: Flux takes place in this Sunday’s fourth episode, Village of the Angels.
The last time we saw The Doctor, the Weeping Angels had taken charge of the TARDIS and judging by the “Next Time…” tease, sent her back to the sixties.
The new episode’s synopsis reads: “Devon, November 1967. A little girl has gone missing, Professor Eustacius Jericho is conducting psychic experiments, and in the village graveyard, there is one gravestone too many. Why is Medderton known as the Cursed Village, and what do the Weeping Angels want?”
According to IMDB, McNally is playing the mysterious Professor Eustacius Jericho in the new episode.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the Pirates actor has played a role in Doctor Who.
He also portrayed Commander Hugo Lang in 1984’s The Twin Dilemma opposite Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, in his first adventure as the Time Lord.
The four-part serial saw an alien called Gastropod Mestor plot to explode the sun of the planet Jaconda, to scatter its eggs across the universe with the aim of conquering it.
Interestingly, having portrayed other characters in the series wouldn’t actually prevent McNally from being cast as The Doctor in the future.
Both Baker and 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi featured in the series in other parts before taking on the iconic role; as did companion actresses Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan who portrayed Martha Jones and Amy Pond respectively.
In fact, Capaldi’s resemblance to the Roman he played in The Fires of Pompeii, who was saved by David Tennant’s 10th Doctor, was later explained once he became the 12th Doctor himself.
In The Girl Who Died, the Time Lord realised he chose that face to remind himself who he is. He’s The Doctor and he saves people.
Doctor Who: Flux is on BBC1 at 6.20pm today and then available on BBC iPlayer
Kevin McNally’s new movie Decrypted is available now on digital download.
Published at Sun, 21 Nov 2021 16:52:00 +0000
Johnny Depp Pirates co-star ‘congratulated’ on being ‘the new Doctor Who’ by fans
