9 Biggest Doctor Who Reveals From SDCC 2024

July 28, 2024, 10:10 p.m.

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9 Biggest Doctor Who Reveals From SDCC 2024

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Doctor Who.

Summary The Doctor Who panel at SDCC 2024 revealed a UNIT spinoff, teased a return of the Pantheon villains for season 15, and played the first clip of the Silurian in the 2024 Christmas special.

Ncuti Gatwa teased the continued exploration of the Pantheon gods in Doctor Who season 15, hinting at exciting battles for the Doctor.

RTD will continue the musical trend in New Who, with an upcoming episode packed with songs and more music in the show.

Despite having to wait for season 15, fans of Doctor Who can rejoice because San Diego Comic-Con 2024 has offered up nine big reveals to get excited about. Screen Rant attended the Doctor Who panel in Hall H – featuring Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, and Russell T. Davies – where the cast and showrunner shared behind-the-scenes details and insider knowledge about the Doctor Who Universe (affectionately called the Whoniverse by fans).

The panel was much needed after the end of Doctor Who season 14. The finale opened up questions like how the Doctor will manage without Ruby, what villains they will face now that Sutekh is defeated, and whether there will be more musical numbers in Doctor Who season 15. A rumor has also been floating around the internet about a UNIT spinoff. Luckily, Gatwa, Gibson, and RTD discussed all these topics and more, providing some of the most exciting reveals of SDCC 2024.

Related Every Movie & TV Show Trailer From SDCC 2024 The Transformers One trailer rolled out ahead of the pack at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con — but a bunch of other first-look trailers are on the way.

9 The War Between The Land & The Sea Spinoff Confirmed

UNIT Will Go Up Against The Sea Devils

Custom Image by Dalton Norman

While a Doctor Who spinoff has been rumored for around half a year, the Doctor Who panel at SDCC finally confirmed it and provided new details about the show focused on a war between UNIT and the Sea Devils – a Classic Who villain introduced in Doctor Who season 9, serial 3, “The Sea Devils.” RTD described the show – titled The War Between The Land & The Sea – as what happens “when the Doctor’s not in town.” Jemma Redgrave’s Kate Stewart and Alexander Devrient’s Colonel Ibrahim, two significant members of the UNIT team in Doctor Who, will return in leading roles.

Filming of the five-episode series should commence in September 2024, without a projected release date yet. Based on the length of time between filming and release for both Doctor Who seasons 14 and 15, fans can expect the show to come out approximately one year after filming ends, offering hope that The War Between The Land & The Sea could come out at the very end of 2025.

8 Ncuti Gatwa Confirms More Pantheon Gods In Doctor Who Season 15

The Doctor Could Go Up Against Many More Pantheon Gods

One of the most exciting things introduced in Doctor Who season 14 was “the Pantheon” – a group of individuals with god-like powers who are more powerful than even the Doctor. Because of their strength, the Doctor fears these gods more than they have any villain since the Daleks. Luckily, the show doesn’t plan on dropping these enemies any time soon. Ncuti Gatwa revealed during the SDCC panel that Doctor Who season 15 would be “continuing the Pantheon.”

The Doctor has already gone up against Sutekh, Maestro, the Mara, and the Toymaker, but at least eight other members of the Pantheon exist for the character to battle. Additionally, the show has the potential to bring The Trickster into the main show – a member of the Pantheon that has only appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures –if RTD plans on including all the gods. Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see how the show decides to continue the story of these villains.

7 Varada Sethu's Companion Is Called Belinda Chandra

Sethu's Character Could Connect To A Character From The Adventures Of Sarah Jane

Image via Disney

In April 2024, the BBC confirmed that actress Varda Sethu, of Andor and Jurassic World: Dominion fame, would join Doctor Who as the Doctor’s companion in season 15. However, details have remained under lock and key until SDCC 2024. RTD decided, seemingly in the moment, to share the name of Varda Sethu’s companion character, Belinda Chandra. He also described her as “strong and wonderful,” but he wouldn’t share any other details.

While these are only small kernels of information, they provide a hint about who the character could be. If the name Belinda Chandra sounds familiar to Doctor Who, it’s probably because the last name Chandra has been used within the Whoniverse before. In The Adventures of Sarah Jane, the titular main character had a companion named Rani Chandra. Since the announcement of Varda Sethu’s Belinda Chandra, speculation has begun that the two characters could be connected, though only time will tell whether the name similarity is a coincidence or intentional.

6 Doctor Who Season 15 Will Introduce New Villains

The Doctor Will Go Up Against Exciting, New Villains

While Ncuti Gatwa promised more of the Pantheon in the Doctor Who panel, he also hinted during an interview with Variety at SDCC that the upcoming season also includes new monsters and characters that expand Doctor Who’s universe. Based on the details shared by Gatwa, it seems that the Pantheon will serve as the throughline, whereas new monsters will appear in the stand-alone episodes.

If correct, this continues the trend set by Doctor Who season 14, which relied on new monsters for the individual episodes while bringing back Sutekh for the bigger serialized arc. Hopefully, this means that Doctor Who showrunner RTD has figured out elements of consistency as going further into the Disney era. By keeping a similar storytelling style, viewers will know what to expect and feel like they’re watching the same show across different seasons of Doctor Who.

5 Russell Tovey And Gubu Mbathu-Raw Will Return To The Whoniverse

Tovey and Mbathu-Raw Won't Reprise Their Former Characters

Doctor Who has a wide array of incredible actors who only appeared for a few episodes, but they’re still incredibly memorable. Two of these actors are getting the opportunity to return to the Whoniverse. On top of confirming the new spinoff The War Between The Land & The Sea, RTD confirmed that two underused Tennant-era actors will appear in the Doctor Who spinoff – Russell Tovey, who previously played Alfonso Frame, and Gubu Mbatha-Raw, who previously played Tish Jones.

At SDCC 2024, the Screen Rant team confirmed Tovey and Mbatha-Raw will play different characters than before, and both new, currently unnamed characters are expected to have a bigger role. It’s unclear if the show will explain them having the same appearance as the previous characters or leave it unaddressed like they did with most of the previous actors who played more than one character in Doctor Who. Because both previous characters are minor, it doesn’t necessarily need to be addressed within the narrative.

4 The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special Will Feature The Silurians

The Silurians Have Been In The Whoniverse Since 1970

December 2024 will bring the second Christmas special since the return of the Doctor Who tradition, and the hype has continued to grow with the announcement that Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan would star as the Doctor’s companion. However, not much else was known about the Steven Moffat-directed episode up until the show debuted the first look at the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special at the panel in San Diego Comic-Con, which Screen Rant attended.

The clip shows the return of a fantastic, recurring Doctor Who villain, the Silurians. This is a race of reptilian humanoids who were introduced in Classic Doctor Who season 7, serial 2, “Doctor Who and the Silurians,” opposite Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor. The species has repeatedly returned in both Classic and New Who. Interestingly, the Silurians are cousins of the aquatic creatures Sea Devils, who will feature in The War Between The Land & The Sea. It’s unclear whether there will be any connection between the Silurians and the reintroduction of the Sea Devils.

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3 Ncuti Gatwa And Millie Gibson Struggled At Not Spoiling Doctor Who Season 14

Gatwa Was Especially Careful Not To Spoil Anything In The Doctor Who Panel

Most of the reveals from the Doctor Who panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 related to the content of the show, but there was one hilarious and interesting behind-the-scenes reveal that was facilitated by the moderator, Josh Horowitz. He asked both Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson how they do with keeping spoilers a secret. It turns out that both of them struggled to keep things quiet throughout Doctor Who season 14 (which they referred to as season 1 throughout the panel because it’s the first season available on Disney+).

Gatwa said he now just keeps his mouth shut because he told everyone spoilers because he couldn’t keep it to himself. Meanwhile, Gibson stated that she gets into conversations and says, “Oh, but I can’t say anything,” but then follows it up with, “But oh actually…” at which point she shares spoilers. However, both indicated that they’ve gotten better at keeping the secrets. This is such a fun reveal because it shows that the actors in Doctor Who are just as excited about the story as the fans.

2 Doctor Who Season 15 Will Include An Episode Packed With Songs

RTD Will Continue The Musical Trend Of New Who

Since the return of RTD as the showrunner, music has become a prominent method of storytelling. Few other shows could get away with writing a song about goblins eating babies and make it a hit that’s just as enjoyable when re-listening. While it’s more prominent in the past season, musical elements weave in and out of New Who on a pretty consistent basis. Nobody can forget the Master’s performance of “I Can’t Decide.” Luckily, the next season of Doctor Who will continue to incorporate music. When asked about music in the show, RTD said this:

“I think it’s part of the show going forward, to be honest…I can promise you more music…There’s a very, very – it’s not [a musical episode] but there’s an episode that’s packed full of songs.”

Because he cut himself off there, saying he couldn’t tell us anything more, there’s no context surrounding the episode. Since Gatwa also confirmed more of the Pantheon, hopefully Doctor Who will bring back Maestro, as they are too entertaining to only appear in one episode of the show. Alternatively, the Master is known for musical outbursts, so it would be a fun way to reintroduce the character after the gold tooth tease.

1 Doctor Who Season 15 Will Feature More Of Mrs. Flood

Mrs. Flood's True Identity Still Remains A Mystery

Doctor Who season 14 introduces a number of major mysteries, but few are as prevalent as the true identity of Mrs. Flood, Ruby’s kindly older neighbor who knows a peculiar amount about the non-human universe. The woman turns sinister when she refuses to give Cherry Sunday a cup of tea and goes on a religiously charged monologue that sounds vaguely threatening.

Then, at the end of the finale, she offers up a disturbing warning about the end of the Doctor’s journey while dressed in a fuzzy white coat and holding a white parasol and a luggage bag with stickers from around the world. Luckily, RTD confirmed that the enigma of a woman will be back again in Doctor Who season 15. That doesn’t necessarily mean the mystery will be solved in the upcoming season of Doctor Who, but it could at least be explored in more detail, providing more context about how much she knows about the Pantheon.