Doctor Who Season 2 Announces Disney+ Premiere Date (and Adds X-Men Star to Cast)

Doctor Who Season 2’s release date is confirmed. On Wednesday, the BBC and Disney Branded Television jointly announced that Doctor Who Season 2 will premiere on Saturday, April 12^th at 3 p.m. ET on Disney+ in territories outside the United Kingdom. As with Doctor Who Season 1, episodes will debut weekly simultaneously with their arrival on the BBC iPlayer app in the United Kingdom. Doctor Who Season 2 sees Ncuti Gatwa returning as the Doctor, joined by Varada Sethu as the Doctor’s new companion, Belinda Chandra. Last season’s companion, Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday, will also appear throughout the new season.

Additionally, the BBC and Disney announced that Alan Cumming – who played Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, currently hosts the hit reality series The Traitors, and appeared in Doctor Who previously as King James I in the 2018 episode “The Witchfinders – has joined Doctor Who Season 2’s cast. Cumming will feature in Doctor Who Season 2’s second episode Mr. Ring-a-Ding, described as “a happy, funny, singalong cartoon, who lives in Sunny Town with his friend Sunshine Sally. However, in 1952, after years of repeats in cinemas across the land, Mr Ring-a-Ding suddenly looks beyond the screen and sees the real world outside — and the consequences are terrifying.”

“Only Alan Cumming could give a runaway cartoon so much wit, malice, danger, and fun,” Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies says in a press release. “He makes the whole universe of Doctor Who wilder and madder than ever, and it’s an absolute honor to welcome him on board the TARDIS.”

Doctor Who Season 2 Premieres Simultaneously on Disney+ and iPlayer

The BBC and Disney also released a brief Doctor Who Season 2 synopsis. It read: “The Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies, and wider terrors than ever before.”

Learning Doctor Who Season 2’s premiere date should be some welcome good news for fans amid rumors that Doctor Who may be canceled and shelved for the second time in its history, and that Gatwa may be ready to move on from the series. The BBC has denied those rumors, stating that no decisions about the show’s future will be made until after all eight Doctor Who Season 2 episodes are out to the public.

[RELATED: Doctor Who Season 2 Wraps Production]

Doctor Who Season 2 stars Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, Varanda Sethu as Belinda Chandra, and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. In addition to Alan Cumming, announced Doctor Who Season 2 guest stars include Rose Ayling-Ellis, Christopher Chung, Anita Dobson, Michelle Greenidge, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruth Madeley, Jemma Redgrave returning as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (ahead of her lead turn in the upcoming Doctor Who spinoff series The War Between the Land and Sea) and Susan Twist as the mysterious Mrs. Flood.

Davies serves as Doctor Who‘s showrunner. Doctor Who’s other executive producers are Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter. Bad Wolf produces Doctor Who with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television, BBC One, and BBC iPlayer.