It's hard to predict what'll happen in the new season of Doctor Who. Current showrunner Russell T. Davies loves season-long mysteries and is careful not to spoil anything.
Still, we know a little about what the cast looks like for Doctor Who season 2.
At least one character has to return so that we can finally solve a mystery surrounding her, and one seeming exit is a fake-out. Our Doctor Who Season 2 cast and character guide has all the info.
Doctor Who's Cast Always Changes Periodically
Cast changes are baked into Doctor Who's format for most of its 60-year run.
As many long-time fans know, the Doctor regenerates periodically, usually when they are mortally wounded. The humans who travel with them leave for a variety of reasons and are replaced with new friends the Doctor meets on their adventures.
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That's one of the factors making it hard to predict what will happen on Doctor Who's newest season, though the cast this time seems like it's mostly stable.
Ncuti Gatwa As The Fifteenth Doctor
Each incarnation of the Doctor has a slightly different personality. So far, the Fifteenth Doctor (sometimes called Fifteen in fan circles to distinguish him from other incarnations) has an energetic, fun, larger-than-life one.
Gatwa's Doctor is often loud, not afraid of rejection, and unapologetically himself.
He enjoys making grand entrances, such as sliding the TARDIS into UNIT headquarters.
Despite his infectious laughter and high energy, FIfteen has a more serious side.
He still feels isolated and alone, and this Doctor has been more overtly emotional than any other Doctor, often crying openly when he fails to save someone, especially Ruby.
The Doctor is such a cultural phenomenon in the UK that playing the role changes each actor's life, putting them more firmly in the public eye than ever before.
Although this is as true for Gatwa as it is for anyone else, he had already achieved a certain level of fame before he began working on Doctor Who, as he played Eric Effiong on Sex Education for four years.
However, shortly before he landed that role, he ran out of savings and was couch surfing because he had no money or home.
Gatwa is originally from Rwanda; his family escaped to Scotland during the Rwandan genocide when he was two years old.
He is openly gay, making him the first LGBTQ+ actor to play the Doctor and the first Black Doctor. He also had a role in the Barbie movie as Artist Ken.
Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday
Although Ruby Sunday had the perfect exit story, she's not entirely done yet.
Throughout the short first season of Doctor Who, Ruby was by the Doctor's side for every adventure.
She also had a strange Doctor Who adventure on her own after the Doctor stepped on a fairy circle, catapulting her into an alternate universe where he didn't exist. She was being followed by a strange, ghostly woman who made everyone reject Ruby.
On the season 1 finale, the Doctor encouraged Ruby to stay home and get to know her new family after she was reunited with her birth mother, and Ruby tearfully left the TARDIS.
However, her story is far from over, as Russell T Davies has confirmed that she will be back during Season 2 and will be traveling in the TARDIS again.
Millie Gibson is best known outside of Doctor Who for her role as Kelly Neelan on the British soap opera Coronation Street.
Interestingly, the actresses who play Cherry Sunday and Mrs. Flood are alums of one of Britain's other popular soaps, Eastenders.
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Gibson won the Best Young Actress Award at the 2022 British Soap Awards, analogous to the award young American soap stars can win at the Daytime Emmys).
Gibson has been in several stage productions as well as on the ITV miniseries Butterfly, in which she plays the cisgender older sister of a transgender child who tried to protect her sister from bullies post-transition.
Verada Sethu as A Not-Yet-Named Companion
Verada Sethu is confirmed to be joining the Doctor Who cast as a companion, but it's not clear yet who this character is.
Sethu appeared in "Boom," the third episode of the previous season. She played Mundy Flynn, a soldier who adopted an orphaned girl, Splice, at the end of the hour.
Could Sethu be playing Mundy again? Possibly, but that wouldn't make much sense, as she's supposed to play a full-time companion to the Doctor.
Mundy couldn't easily leave Splice behind to go gallivanting around the universe, although enough time could have passed since the Doctor's last visit that Splice has grown up now.
In any case, she and Ruby are supposed to work together, but will Ruby warm to this character, whoever she is, right away? Doctor Who could easily go for the tired TV trope of enemies-to-friends, considering that Sethu's character has taken Ruby's place in the TARDIS.
Sethu and her twin sister are of Indian descent. Like Ncuti Gatwa, they emigrated to the United Kingdom at a young age.
She studied veterinary medicine and physiology at the University of Bristol, though she was acting on the side.
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Besides Doctor Who, she is best known for starring alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Michael Caine in Now You See Me 2, an American heist film.
She was also a regular in the six-episode BBC series Hard Sun, a pre-apocalyptic series about two detectives who discover proof that the world will end in five years.
Anita Dobson As Mrs. Flood
Mrs. Flood's identity is a mystery that has kept Doctor Who fans talking all season long and beyond.
Although the first season dropped hints that Mrs. Flood wasn't who she claimed to be, such as her knowledge of the TARDIS and seemingly evil demeanor when she was alone with Cherry, it didn't answer the question of who she is.
If you found this frustrating, the good news is that Anita Dobson has promised that a lot more of the truth about her character will be revealed during Season 2.
Hopefully, that'll start with an answer to whether she's good or evil. She could be the amoral Rani, a fellow Time Lord who will do anything for the sake of experimenting on humans.
The Rani has not been seen in 40 years, primarily because of a dispute about who owns the rights to the character, but the Doctor mentioned her in his first episode, so the chances are she will return at some point.
Anita Dobson is a well-known British actress who got her start on Eastenders, a long-running soap opera.
She starred on the series from 1985 to 1988; after she left, she rejected numerous offers for her return and her character was reported to be dead on a 2002 episode.
Dobson has appeared in many British comedies, most notably the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, and was in several episodes of the children's show "The Worst Witch."
Dobson is also a singer and is married to Queen guitarist Brian May.
Angela Wynter As Cherry Sunday
Ruby's grandmother was a minor character with a punny name during the first season.
However, she's now the only one who knows that Mrs. Flood isn't who she claims to be. Thus, she's likely to play a more significant role during Season 2.
It's unclear if Cherry remembers how Mrs. Flood treated her, but it's sure to come out at some point, and when it does, Ruby will want to confront her neighbor -- or somehow get in touch with the Doctor so he can do so.
Cherry might also be able to shed light on some other mysteries, such as why Carla abandoned Ruby in the alternate timeline during "73 Yards."
That wasn't a split for the sake of drama -- something weird was going on with that apparition that supposedly turned out to be an older version of Ruby.
Angela Wynter is also an Eastenders alum, although she first appeared in 2003, a year after Anita Dobson's character was finally written out permanently.
She is originally from Jamaica but emigrated to the UK and worked alongside her future Eastenders costar in the play Meetings, her first role.
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She based her character on Eastenders on her sister, who is no longer alive.
Besides Eastenders, she's best known for her work on the British soap Doctors.
Michelle Greenidge as Carla Sunday
Carla is Ruby's adoptive mother. She fiercely loves her daughter. She has a big heart and always fosters babies, though Ruby is the only one she has raised through adulthood.
Carla is as courageous as Ruby is. She doesn't bat an eye at most Doctor Who monsters and insisted on accompanying Ruby and Rose back to UNIT headquarters after learning that Rose's mother works there.
She would be upset if she knew how close Ruby came to death more than once while with the Doctor, as he had promised Carla that he would keep her daughter safe and return her in one piece.
In the alternate timeline in 73 Yards, Carla tried to help Ruby find out who the mysterious woman following her was, but after approaching the apparition, she rejected her without explanation.
Her total rejection was Ruby's worst fear, and the reason for it in that episode is still a mystery.
Outside of Doctor Who, Michelle Greenidge is well-known as a comedy actress.
She appeared in the Netflix comedy After Life and later on the BBC-2 series Mandy.
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She also appeared as PC Williamson on the comedy-drama Code 404.
Greenidge has also acted in several stage plays throughout her career, including The Distance Between Us and People Who Need People.
Who Else Might Appear on Doctor Who Season 2?
Doctor Who made a point of reestablishing UNIT.
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart usually appears at least once a season, continuing the tradition started by her father during the Pertwee years. Now that she has a full UNIT team, she has even more reason to appear.
Other UNIT members may also have cameos. Hopefully, Rose Noble will have a bigger part and not just be doing busywork if she returns.
Legacy character Melanie Bush could also appear again since she's also part of UNIT now.
Finally, there's no telling yet which monsters from the past might make a comeback. The Master and the Daleks were rested after overexposure during the Thirteenth Doctor's run, but that doesn't mean one or both couldn't return on Season 2.
Over to you, fellow Whovians!
Which characters are you most looking forward to? Is there anyone you would add or subtract from the main cast?
Hit the comments and let us know!
Doctor Who Season 2 will stream on Disney+, premiering in the winter or spring of 2025.