SDCC 2024: Doctor Who Spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea Announced

Loki's Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star in the Doctor Who spinoff on Disney+.

By Jamie Lovett

On Friday at San Diego Comic-Con, Disney Branded Television and BBC announced The War Between the Land and the Sea, an upcoming Doctor Who spinoff series. The announcement revealed the five-part series' cast includes Russell Tovey (Feud, American Horror Story: NYC) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Surface, Loki) alongside some familiar faces from Doctor Who in Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Alexander Devrient as Colonel Ibrahim. As The War Between the Land and the Sea's title hints, the series brings back a classic Doctor Who species, the Sea Devils, last seen in "Legend of the Sea Devils," one of the 2022 Doctor Who specials.

The official synopsis for The War Between the Land and the Sea reads, "When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered. With the entire population at risk, UNIT steps into action as the land and sea wage war." Doctor Who showrunner and executive producer Russell T Davies created The War Between the Land and the Sea and wrote the series with Pete McTighe (A Discovery of Witches, The Pact, Doctor Who).

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(Photo:

Sea Devils, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jemma Redgrave

- BBC, Michael Wharley, BBC)

Who are the Sea Devils in Doctor Who?

The Sea Devils are a prehistoric species that once ruled the Earth before humans took over and have since faded from living memory. They first appeared in the 1972 Doctor Who serial "The Sea Devils," where they faced off against John Pertwee's Third Doctor.  They appeared again in the 1984 Doctor Who serial "Warriors of the Deep," which starred Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. They faced Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor in 2022's "Legend of the Sea Devils."

The War Between the Land and the Sea begins filming in August. Dylan Holmes-Williams, who directed the Doctor Who Season 1 episode "73 Yards" and "Dot and Bubble," will direct the spinoff. The War Between the Land and the Sea will stream exclusively on Disney+ where available and on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the U.K.

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"I'm so lucky to work with such a magnificent cast," Davies says in a press release. "And this is a huge, muscular, thrilling drama which will shake The Whoniverse to its foundations. When the Doctor's not in town, the whole of humanity is in trouble."

The War Between the Land and the Sea is produced by Bad Wolf, with BBC Studios for Disney Branded Television and BBC. In addition to Davies, executive producers include Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, and Jane Tranter.

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