Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 3, “Boom.”
Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday will cease to be the Doctor’s companion at the end of Doctor Who season 14, and the incoming actor who will take her place in season 15 has already appeared in the Disney era of the show. Despite being a mainstay of the Doctor Who season 14 cast, Gibson’s character is set to be replaced at some point – presumably near the end of the current run of episodes. Although she is set to depart the show, showrunner Russell T Davies has already confirmed that Gibson will reprise her role in Doctor Who season 15.
Gibson’s eventual return will reunite her with Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, and also possibly place her alongside the incoming companion actor. At present, the reason for Ruby Sunday’s Doctor Who departure has yet to be revealed, but it is seemingly not an exit that will be permanent. Thankfully, Gibson’s future absence from the show appears to be one that’s been planned for narrative reasons rather than as a result of behind-the-scenes drama. Either way, Doctor Who‘s Disney era will start its first two seasons with a different Doctor/companion actor pairing.
The Fifteenth Doctor’s new companion in Doctor Who season 15 will be played by Varada Sethu. As yet, her character name is unconfirmed. However, the actor’s debut on the show came in Doctor Who season 14, episode 3, “Boom.” Written by former Doctor Who writer/showrunner Steven Moffat, “Boom” serves as a soft sequel to other Moffat stories that feature the militarized Church that he introduced during Matt Smith’s reign as the Eleventh Doctor. Although no members of the Church in “Boom” are returning figures, the character of Mundy Flynn is portrayed by Varada Sethu.
Doctor Who season 15 currently has no official release date, but production has already begun. As such, it’s expected to arrive at some point in 2025. If so, that means that Varada Sethu will have debuted on Doctor Who an entire year before becoming a member of the main cast. Little is known about Sethu’s Doctor Who season 15 character, or whether they’ll be connected to the actor’s persona in “Boom.” Although, given the nature of a mind-bending sci-fi like Doctor Who, it’s certainly possible that there is a link between both Varada Sethu characters.
Varada Sethu isn’t the first actor to appear in Doctor Who before being cast as the Doctor’s companion. For example, Freema Agyeman plays Martha Jones throughout Doctor Who season 3 and also made some guest appearances as Martha in Doctor Who season 4. However, her earliest role on the show came in Doctor Who season 2, “Army of Ghosts,” where she played Adeola Oshodi. Adeola was a Torchwood One employee who perished in the same story, and she was retroactively revealed to be Martha’s cousin. By doing this, the show rectified the pothole of both characters sharing the same face.
Similarly, Karen Gillan’s most famous Doctor Who character is Amy Pond, the first companion of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. However, Gillan appeared on the show before she stepped into the shoes of Amy Pond. In Doctor Who season 4, episode 2, “The Fires of Pompeii,” Gillan played a Soothsayer named Mira, marking her Doctor Who debut a full season before she was cast as Amy Pond.
Doctor Who also isn’t beyond casting actors as the Doctor who have previously played other characters within the franchise. For instance, Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi played three roles in total, with the Doctor being his third and final. As well as appearing as Lobus Caecilius in “The Fires of Pompeii,” Capaldi also played John Frobisher in Torchwood season 3 – a Doctor Who spinoff created by Russell T Davies.
Varada Sethu could be unique among previous companion actors in that she may have already played her biggest character. In other words, it could be that Sethu’s character in “Boom” is who she is set to play in Doctor Who season 15. If Mundy Flynn is the Doctor’s companion after Millie Gibson leaves the show, then the dynamic would certainly be interesting. The Doctor and Mundy meet in incredibly dire circumstances, with the Doctor’s temper flaring and his nerves close to the surface.
There aren’t many companions who first meet the Doctor at his lowest ebb, and it would make for a compelling foundation on which the pair could build a friendship. In addition, as a soldier, Mundy would have a very different approach to finding solutions to various problems. The Doctor is predominantly a peaceful character who always tries to avoid conflict when necessary, so this mismatched pairing would be exciting to explore.
If Sethu isn’t reprising her role as Mundy Flynn in Doctor Who season 15, then this implies she is playing an entirely original character. However, given the cerebral nature of Doctor Who‘s Disney era with its concealed clues, subtle winks, and fourth-wall breaks, it seems unlikely that the show is replicating its past issues of repeat castings. That being said, it does remain a possibility that Sethu impressed Davies with her time on set and simply earned herself a larger role.
Sometimes, a future companion actor’s earlier roles are directly linked to their future on the show. Jenna Coleman is a great example of this, debuting in Doctor Who season 7, episode 1, “Asylum of the Daleks” as Oswin. Further down the line, Oswin ended up being strongly tied to Clara Oswald, in that she was essentially a temporal copy of the same character. This particular arc took place during Steven Moffat’s era as the Doctor Who showrunner. As such, with Moffat returning to write “Boom,” Sethu’s early appearance as Mundy Flynn could be following a similar framework to Clara’s.
There is also the matter of Susan Twist’s mysterious cameos. Twist’s guest appearances run throughout Doctor Who season 14, and even date back to the second of the three 60th-anniversary specials, “Wild Blue Yonder.” The enigmatic thread that connects all the seemingly distinct characters is a strong sign that Doctor Who is in the midst of a complex, hidden storyline. So, it’s very possible that Varada Sethu’s role as Mundy is limited to “Boom,” but that her future Doctor Who character can still related.