News Doctor Who Doctor Who to Return Christmas 2026, But the BBC’s Disney+ Partnership Is Over. What’s Next for the Show? The series has been in limbo since the 2025 season finale. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on October 28, 2025 Credit: Disney+ Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Disney+ We finally have an update on the fate of Doctor Who after the season finale in which Ncuti Gatwa, who plays the Fifteenth Doctor, bow out. Today, the BBC announced that the series will come back in December 2026 with a Christmas special penned by Russell T. Davies. The statement also confirmed that the partnership with Disney is officially over. “We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between the Land and the Sea,” BBC Director of Drama Lindsay Salt said in a statement. “The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T. Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026. We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.” This news wasn’t surprising. Ever since the finale of the latest season (which also saw the Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper, though it’s unclear if she’ll be the next Doctor), fans have been waiting to hear the show’s fate. The series didn’t appear to get the ratings that Disney hoped for, though Davies and the BBC remained publicly committed to the show. It’s good to see that their promises that the series would continue with or without Disney proved true.  And before we get the Christmas 2026 special, we will have The War Between the Land and the Sea, a five-episode limited series that’s set to premiere on Disney+ at some point in the near future (no official premiere date has been announced yet). The show sees an ancient sea-dwelling species emerge from the ocean and cause an international crisis that UNIT must work to resolve. Once that show streams, the Who partnership between Disney and the BBC will formally be done. [end-mark] The post <i>Doctor Who</i> to Return Christmas 2026, But the BBC’s Disney+ Partnership Is Over. What’s Next for the Show? appeared first on Reactor.