Doctor Who Showrunner Was Asked to Produce a Marvel Show, But Doesn't Know What It Was

For some, Russell T. Davies has become a ubiquitous part of the television landscape, thanks to his work on Doctor Who and Queer as Folk. As a new interview with Davies, who is about to make his return to Who, reveals, he almost had a role in helping a completely different franchise. In a recent interview with SFX Magazine, Davies revealed that he was asked to showrun a "British Marvel show" — presumably for Marvel Studios, which has ventured into television in recent years on Disney+. The only caveat is that Davies wasn't told what the show would even be — and to this day, he still can't figure out what project it might've been.

"I got asked to showrun a British Marvel show, but [they said] 'We can't tell you what it is,'" Davies explained. The director laughs loudly, "To this day, I watch them and I can't work out which show that was going to be. Obviously planning to make a British Marvel show that I haven't seen. Has that happened?"

Who Will Be the Next Doctor Who?

Sex Education and Barbie star Ncuti Gatwa is set to play the Fifteenth Doctor in the upcoming 60th anniversary season of Doctor Who, which will be showrun by Davies. David Tennant, who portrayed the franchise's Tenth Doctor, will also be returning as the Fourteenth Doctor for a string of specials later this fall.

"Oh God, what a force of nature," Tennant exclaimed in a recent interview. "I've caught a little bit of him at work and it's pretty exciting. I mean, what advice would you give someone? You can see Ncuti has so much talent and energy. He's so inspired and charismatic. The thing about something like this is: it's the peripherals, it's not the job. It's the other stuff that comes with it, that I didn't see coming. It's a show that has so much focus and enthusiasm on it. It's not like Ncuti hasn't been in a massive Netflix series [Sex Education,] but Doctor Who is on a slightly different level. It's cross-generational, international, and has so much history, that it feels like it belongs to everyone. To be at the center of the show is wonderful and humbling, but also a bit overwhelming and terrifying. It doesn't come without some difficulties, such as the immediate loss of anonymity. It takes a bit of getting used to if that's not been your life up to that point. I was very lucky that when I joined, Billie Piper [who portrayed on-screen companion, Rose] was still there. She'd lived in a glare of publicity since she was 14, so she was a great guide for how to live life under that kind of scrutiny. I owe a degree of sanity to Billie."

What do you think of Russell T. Davies having been asked to showrun a Marvel show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!