After returning to her roots in the Season 15 finale of Doctor Who, Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker said she will happily return to the long-running sci-fi series at first call.
In a profile with The Times U.K., the Broadchurch alumna reflected on her brief homecoming, which comes about as Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor regenerates into Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler, the companion to the Ninth (Christopher Eccleston) and Tenth Doctors (David Tennant).
“I was just delighted I still fitted in my costume,” she said of reprising the role, adding, “The second I got to Cardiff [the series’ central filming location], I felt like I was home, even though it’s a different studio, a different Tardis. It’s just my absolute happiness, Doctor Who. If someone said to me in 20 years, ‘I’ve written an episode and the Thirteenth comes back,’ I just wouldn’t hesitate. It’s absolute joy.”
Though speculation has been swirling around Doctor Who for months amid plunging ratings and concerns that Disney+ could pull out of its co-production deal with BBC, the British broadcaster’s new chief content officer Kate Phillips recently affirmed the company remains committed to the show. Showrunner Russell T Davies had previously announced the completion of Season 3 (Season 16) scripts, but told Deadline in June that “we don’t know what’s happening yet.”
Meanwhile, Whittaker, who made history as the first female Doctor in 2018’s series 11, reflected on her momentous casting, saying, “There needed to be a first and I didn’t fully appreciate it. I’m not like Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot: ‘I’m a girl, I’m a girl!’ I just am. But once it was announced — as well as a few grumpy pumps — for a lot of people it felt like a really wonderful moment.”
Though much is up in the air regarding the return of Doctor Who, Whittaker is also currently starring in the audio drama series Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures, opposite Mandip Gill, who voices her companion Yaz.
“You don’t ever really leave it,” Whittaker concluded of the beloved series, adding of the audio show: “I can be with Mandip all day, every day and not learn my lines. I’ve never been happier. I’ll do that for ever — I’ll be Doctor 13 into my nineties.”