Doctor Who

The BBC announced on Sunday that casting has been finalized for the 14th Doctor on the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. Nctui Gatwa will pick up ...

The blue box, of course, is a reference to the Doctor’s method of travel through time and space, a 1960s-era London police box called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space). As the catchphrase goes, it’s bigger on the inside. Gatwa, a 29-year-old actor born in Rwanda and raised in Scotland, is best known from the successful Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education. He also has been cast in an unnamed role in Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming Barbie film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. He acknowledged the announcement by posting two heart emojis, a plus sign, and a blue box to his Instagram. Hand over the keys to the TARDIS, there’s a new Time Lord in town.

Mr. Gatwa, a star of the Netflix series “Sex Education,” will be the first Black man to play the title character in the enduring BBC science fiction ...

Ms. Whittaker’s final episode is yet to come, Russell T. Davies, the series showrunner, said in a statement. The BBC has aired 39 seasons of “Doctor Who” over nearly 60 years. When Ms. Whittaker’s turn as the Doctor was announced in 2017, some fans adopted the hashtag #NotMyDoctor and questioned why the character had suddenly changed genders. In July 2017, the BBC announced Ms. Whittaker’s selection in a commercial that aired after the Wimbledon men’s final. “Doctor Who” fans celebrated the news on Twitter on Sunday, with many expressing their excitement to see a doctor who resembles them. It’s something that everyone can enjoy, so I feel very grateful to have had the baton handed over and I’m going to try to do my best.”

Gatwa, best known for the role of Eric Effiong in the Netflix series Sex Education, is the first Black person to be cast full-time in the starring role in ...

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Where have you seen the new 14th Doctor before? Or: why Ncuti Gatwa's trousers in Sex Education prove that he'll make a brilliant Doctor.

Gatwa plays “Dougie”, a character that nobody who has seen the miniseries remembers. Now ideally Gatwa would have played Puck, the trickster, or maybe even the mighty King Oberon. That would be thematically handy, but instead in this stage production, Gatwa plays Demetrius, one of the many mortals in the play who gets messed about with love potions. He describes the character as very focused but as somebody who “brings the fun back”. Is that what he plans to do for the Doctor? Or are these in fact two completely unrelated performances? In Dominic Brigstocke’s family comedy, Gatwa plays “Timidus,” a Roman soldier befriended by the protagonist when he gets conscripted. The announcement of a new Doctor is like Christmas for Doctor Who fans, if Christmas came every three-to-five years and appeared without warning. The first thing, as a Doctor Who fan, that you notice while watching Sex Education, is that Ncuti Gatwa is wearing absolutely perfect Doctor trousers – grey tweed that Hartnell, Troughton, or Capaldi would not turn their noses up at.

In terms of MCU chronology, Multiverse of Madness details the most recent events, taking place after Spider-Man: No Way Home, WandaVision, and Loki. If you need ...

We know from the trailers that at some point Doctor Strange is to face a reckoning for his multiverse meddling. Exactly who they are and what they do within the MCU is currently unknown, but the possibilities are exciting. We know, for example, that the multiverse concept is being used to provide multiple versions of several characters. Finding herself in Strange’s universe, she asks for his help, and so Strange enlists Wong and Wanda (and others?) to set things right in the multiverse. Not officially confirmed at time of writing, but something of an open secret, is Patrick Stewart. His distinctive voice can be heard when a character briefly addresses Strange off-camera in one of the trailers. Something is chasing her through the multiverse, craving her power. Xochitl Gomez, who you may have seen in The Baby-Sitters Club, brings America Chavez to life from the comics. By WandaVision’s end, Wanda has been forced to come to terms with the fact that she has been subconsciously (but powerfully) holding the entire town of Westview hostage, cutting it off from the outside world. At the end of the series, as painful as it is for her, she does the right thing by giving the town its freedom; which means losing the husband and children that she had created for herself. The final twist, and the one that might be what convinces her to help Strange is her sons – the ones that never truly existed – are somehow involved. WandaVision in particular is important to be up to speed on, and here come the spoilers explaining why. It will send old characters down paths of no return, bring new characters into the canon, and set events in motion that will have far-reaching consequences.

Doctor Strange and his questionably effective book of spells summoned a blockbuster US$185 million at North American movie theatres over the past weekend, ...

It summoned a blockbuster $257 million at North American movie theaters over the weekend. . Read more at straitstimes.com.

The Doctor Strange follow-up outgrossed its predecessor's entire opening weekend tally in a single day. Spider-Man: No Way Home still ranks as the pandemic's biggest opening weekend (and the second-biggest ever) with US$260 million. Those box office returns mark the 11th biggest opening weekend in history.

The actor's Instagram outburst comes after a box office triumph for her latest film, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Both films contain plot elements relating to a “multiverse”, or parallel universes, but while the Marvel movie is a sequel to the blockbuster 2016 Doctor Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh as a Chinese-American woman being audited by the US tax service. In a string of posts on social media, Curtis, star of Halloween, claimed Everything Everywhere All at Once “out marvels any Marvel movie they put out there” and even suggested Doctor Strange had used a “copycat” poster. Curtis’ Instagram posts appear to have been sparked by Everything Everywhere All at Once’s exceptional box office performance, including reaching the number one position for a single day’s takings in the US, recording over $700,000 on 4 May, nearly six weeks after its release.

Ncuti Gatwa will take the mantle from Jodie Whittaker on “Doctor Who,” the BBC announced Sunday, ending speculation over the iconic Time Lord's next ...

He promises a “spectacular” 2023. “This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. The original run of “Doctor Who” spanned 1963 to 1989.

The casting is revolutionary, while also being precedented, says film and TV writer James Cooray Smith.

It was created by the Canadian Sydney Newman, and its first episode was written by an Australian, Anthony Coburn, produced by Verity Lambert, a Jewish woman, and directed by Waris Hussein, a gay Muslim born in Lucknow when India was still part of the British empire. The black British actor Jo Martin has played the part, but not as the lead. Gatwa is the first black actor to play the role as a series lead. To audition for a series lead is pretty normal for TV, but unusual for Doctor Who. Most Doctors, including Davies’ own previous two, have been people the then showrunner had already worked with. Bad Wolf, the production company responsible for the next series of Doctor Who, tweeted a picture of a post made by Gatwa to his almost 3 million Instagram followers. Doctor Who is, in cliche, a “national institution”, a term first applied to it by the Radio Times as long ago as 1972.

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" collected a blockbuster $185 million over the weekend.

A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” beat Focus Features’ Viking epic “The Northman” for fifth place, as the former brought in $3.3 million from 1,542 theaters and the latter brought in $2.7 million from 2,413 theaters. After five weeks on the big screen, the “Sonic” follow-up has grossed $169.9 million at the domestic box office. “Doctor Strange 2” kicks off the summer blockbuster season with a bang. “Happening,” which unfolds in 1963 France, arrives on the big screen at a politically charged moment, with the Supreme Court seemingly about to overturn Roe v. At the domestic box office, the “Doctor Strange” follow-up outgrossed its predecessor’s entire opening weekend tally in a single day. “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” dropped to the No. 4 spot with $3.8 million from 3,051 screens. With $33 million from Imax alone, “Doctor Strange” ranks among the company’s top 10 global opening weekends. The film landed a 75% average on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B+” CinemaScore, lower grades than typical Marvel movies. Still, the sequel will quickly blow past the final box office tally of the original “Doctor Strange,” which ended its theatrical run with $232 million domestically and $677 million globally. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” still ranks as the pandemic’s biggest opening weekend (and the second-biggest ever) with $260 million. With Peter Parker’s tantalizing adventures as a precursor, plus Disney’s marketing machine heavily teasing some big surprise cameos, “Doctor Strange” landed in rarified air — even for a Marvel movie. Given the anomaly of reaching those heights, “Doctor Strange 2” easily delivered the biggest opening weekend of 2022, as well as the second-biggest debut in COVID-19 times.

Gatwa is best known for his role on Netflix's Sex Education, where he plays one of the series' leads, Eric — a role for which he recently received a Scottish ...

After Jodie Whittaker, who served as Doctor Who’s lead for 32 episodes, steps down as the 13th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa will regenerate as number 14. Ncuti dazzled us, seized hold of The Doctor and owned those TARDIS keys in seconds.” In the franchise’s nearly 60-year history, only one other Black actor has ever played the role: Jo Martin starred as a fugitive version of The Doctor who appeared in several episodes during Whittaker’s tenure.

The new Doctor Who has been unveiled, and it's "Sex Education" star Ncuti Gatwa.

The BBC confirmed Gatwa’s casting on Sunday afternoon, local time, just hours before the taping of the BAFTA TV Awards, suggesting there could be some reference to “Doctor Who” during the ceremony. Gatwa takes over from Jodie Whittaker, who has played the iconic role since 2017. The new Doctor Who has been unveiled, and it’s “Sex Education” star Ncuti Gatwa.

Gatwa will be the first non-white actor to star in the role and will make his Doctor Who debut in 2023.

There's no hiding that the BBC has picked a young and talented actor who will bring a lot of energy to the role. Gatwa, who is best known for playing Eric in Netflix's "Sex Education," will be the first actor of color to play the iconic role. The future is here!

Not even comic book fans could make Tom Cruise show up in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.' Here are all the supposed cameos that never came to ...

But not even Multiverse of Madness could find time for all the cameos that fans wanted. Here are all the rumored Multiverse of Madness cameos that never came to fruition. If there’s one thing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t in short supply of, it’s cameos.

Hence, a particularly gory scene in the film took audiences by surprise, as Marvel introduces “the Illuminati” (kind of like Mensa, for Avengers), which ...

But the violence and “horror” in this film echoes that of Hocus Pocus, or perhaps a well-decorated Halloween house in suburbia. Speaking as a parent of young children, I think that Marvel has brought this controversy on itself. Marvel’s latest film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, has audiences debating whether the film deserved its PG-13 rating, as concerned parents and squeamish viewers propose that the film is too scary.

Change makes everyone nervous, especially Whovians. But it's how we regenerate, says the Guardian columnist Zoe Williams.

People thought it was sexism that led Whovians to angst over a female Doctor, and some of it was, but a lot of the Timelord anxiety was timeless. Sometimes I think Doctor Who has a regenerative effect on the whole of society, even the bits that don’t watch it. Of course he’s the Doctor. Of course it’s nothing like his previous role in Sex Education, because it would actually be quite tricky, trying to cast a Doctor from the pool of shows a little bit like it.

Criticism of Marvel Studios movies is not a new phenomenon. Despite their pictures generally receiving solid marks from a plurality of critics almost every ...

There is nothing in Multiverse of Madness that’s demonstrably scarier or more violent than Temple of Doom. Frankly, there’s little in it scarier than Raimi’s first superhero movie from 20 years ago, Spider-Man. The violent sequence where Peggy Carter is bisected by a shield? And I’m sure more than a few parents (and kids) were unsettled by the tunnel of terror scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), another movie for all-ages that dabbles in horror imagery. Others, however, might seem to have it just as much because cultural norms have changed in the 21st century with blockbuster entertainment (save for animated movies) being exclusively PG-13. One of the last major franchised blockbusters in live-action to have a “PG” was Star Wars: Attack of the Clones in 2002, and honestly there is nothing in Ant-Man (2015) or its sequel that is half as edgy as that. When Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opened in theaters in 1984, it had a PG rating, just as its predecessor Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) did, as well as every other previous Spielberg movie. That is a pretty fair description of the film’s content, as well as a decent warning to parents on whether or not they should let children under the age of 13 see Doctor Strange 2. Those were bleak elements, bleaker I’d dare say than anything in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And Spielberg realized this too after he received enough complaints. With that said, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has already drawn a bright red line around that with the movie’s PG-13 rating, including with the handy-dandy warning that the picture features “intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images, and some language.” A hypnotized Indy later attempts to do the same thing to the movie’s love interest (Kate Capshaw) while Short Round is consigned to child slavery, including with whippings, by the film’s villains. So seeing the inversion of that around Sam Raimi’s gleefully distinct and stylish Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is kind of wild. Despite Feige and Raimi both teasing that their new flick is Marvel’s first “horror movie,” it is more of the studio’s first film with horror seasoning. She then splits Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) in half before finally coming out of a red mist to snap the neck of Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in a jump scare that actually does feel like a bit from Evil Dead II, if more sanitized. Meanwhile more than one tweet over the weekend has suggested that such an experience as this new Marvel movie could be inflicting a form of trauma on our youth.

Ncuti Gatwa will take the mantle from Jodie Whittaker on “Doctor Who,” the BBC announced Sunday, ending speculation over the iconic Time Lord's next ...

The original run of “Doctor Who” spanned 1963 to 1989. “This role and show means so much to so many around the world, including myself, and each one of my incredibly talented predecessors has handled that unique responsibility and privilege with the utmost care. “Ncuti dazzled us, seized hold of the Doctor and owned those TARDIS keys in seconds.”

Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa has been cast as the 14th Doctor – a move which shows that Doctor Who is continually adapting in its 60th year.

What that special will involve is as yet unknown, but 60 is an astonishing age for a television program to reach. The black and white Doctor Who of the Hartnell era was also monochrome in more ways than one. The anger and fear that, from some quarters, greeted her casting also prompted soul searching among fans on the sometimes unwelcoming space that fandom can be for females. The classic Doctor Who (made 1963-1989) did cast actors from minority backgrounds, but not as Doctors or companions. Patrick Troughton, another respected and prolific actor, became the Doctor. Because the Doctor is an alien Time Lord, the character has the ability to regenerate when his or her body becomes old, ill, or injured. Even people who don’t watch the show have been taking to social media to comment about Gatwa’s casting.