At San Diego Comic Con in July 2024, Russell T Davies gave SFX Magazine a somewhat discouraging update on the status of a third new series in conjunction with Disney, which streams the show on Disney+.

“It’s an industry decision, it’s like any business — these things take time. I think the decision will come after the transmission of Season Two. That’s what we’re expecting, that’s what we’ve always been heading towards.”

This diverges from what Davies told Radio Times only a month earlier.

“Ncuti’s off to do a play, The Importance of Being Earnest. And so we’re coming back after that. Amazingly, we might be shooting those scripts early next year [2025]. Those scripts have to be ready by August for prep.”

Season Two, which completed principal photography on 22 May 2024, was presumed to commence transmission in spring of 2025 just like Season One began transmission in May 2024. Comments Bad Wolf executive Jane Tranter in August 2024 to Deadline have now shed doubt on that assumption.

“We’re still in the edit, very early days of the edit for Season 2, which obviously won’t go out for another year or so.”

Since television shows don’t typically premiere in late summer, “another year or so” would put the earliest likely transmission of Season Two in autumn 2025 or later, not spring.

Filming for Season One started in December 2022 and concluded in July 2023 for a May 2024 transmission. Filming for Season Two started in October 2023 and concluded in May 2024. It takes approximately eight months to film an entire 8-episode series and, according to the May 2024 start date for the 2024 series, approximately 10 months to complete post production. This would put Season Two on schedule for a spring 2024 transmission — if it weren’t for Tranter shedding doubt on that assumption.

If Bad Wolf, the company commissioned to produce Doctor Who, must wait until autumn 2025 for a decision from the BBC and Disney on a possible Doctor Who Season Three, the earliest production could begin on said series is likely winter 2025.

Based on the timing for Season One, if production doesn’t begin on Season Three until winter 2025 (assuming it’s eventually commissioned), the earliest Season Three could transmit would be late spring 2027.

This timing could be further complicated by Fourteenth Doctor actor Ncuti Gatwa’s availability or whether it is necessary to take some time to cast a new Doctor should Gatwa decide not to continue.

In the meantime, fans can enjoy the 2024 Christmas special Joy to the World with Ncuti Gatwa and co-starring Nicola Coughlan. At some point, eight episodes of Season Two and five episodes of the Doctor Who spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea will transmit while fans await news on a possible Doctor Who Season Three.