The next season of Doctor Who is going all-in on the intriguing casting. Indira Varma (Obi-Wan Kenobi, pictured above) is returning to the Whoniverse in a new role: The Duchess, which certainly sounds like a Time Lord title. All the BBC has to say about it is that it’s a “mysterious role.”
Aren’t they all?
Varma appeared as Suzie Costello in Torchwood, making her Doctor Who appearance a reunion with showrunner Russell T. Davies. And she’s not the only one set to play a vague but promising role in the upcoming season: Jonathan Groff (Knock at the Cabin) plays a character about whom we know nothing, other than that he’s dressed up in some finery with new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and companion Millie Gibson. And Jinkx Monsoon, season five winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is playing “a major role.”
In a statement, Davies dropped one hint about Varma’s character: It doesn’t sound like the Duchess is very friendly. “A whole new audience will be hiding behind the settee when the Duchess unleashes her terror,” Davies said.
Three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, arrive this November; Gatwa’s first full episode as the Fifteenth Doctor will air, the BBC says, “over the festive period.”
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