Disney is no longer teaming up with the BBC for Doctor Who, as a new Christmas Special is confirmed for 2026

Varada Sethu as Belinda and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor in 'The Interstellar Song Contest.' — (Image credit: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Lara Cornell)

It's been a long few months for Doctor Who fans. Since the end of the show's "second" season (in actuality, its 41st run of episodes) in May saw star Ncuti Gatwa unexpectedly bow out of the sci-fi franchise, there has been doubt over when – or even if – the series would return. Well, now we finally have an answer: Doctor Who will return in 2026 for a Christmas Special.

A press release posted today across Doctor Who's social media reveals that not only will the next episode be a festive special, penned by showrunner Russell T. Davies, but Disney Plus are officially no longer involved in the venerable sci-fi series.

"We'd like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between the Land and the Sea," said the BBC's director of drama Lindsay Salt. "The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T. Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026. We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC."

Latest Videos From

There's quite a lot to unpack here, though the news that Disney Plus will no longer be involved will likely not be much of a surprise to anyone who has been following the situation closely.

Disney Plus officially joined forces with the BBC as partners on the show in 2022 and made headlines by ordering two seasons of Doctor Who and the as-yet-unseen spin-off series, The War Between the Land and the Sea.

Since Doctor Who's second season wrapped up with 'The Reality War', however, there has been a fairly deafening silence about whether Disney would continue to be involved in the show's future. The news today makes it clear that the partnership between the streamer and the BBC has ended, though it doesn't provide any indication on if the BBC will partner with a different streamer in the future.

The press release also contains a couple of other interesting nuggets of information. Notably, the aforementioned The War Between the Land and the Sea appears to have moved up in the schedule. The five-episode series, which focuses on the Doctor's paramilitary pals U.N.I.T. facing off against a deadly threat, was initially announced to be streaming in 2025. Earlier this year, however, it was stated by the BBC's chief content officer, Kate Phillips, that the show would be arriving "next year."

The new statement makes it clear that The War Between will be released in 2025. As it's not been announced for November, we can probably assume that the show will debut in December, 2025, though no official date has been given just yet.

Finally, it was revealed earlier in the year that the BBC was searching for a studio to produce a Doctor Who animated show aimed at much younger audiences. The strapline of today's press release suggests that one may have been found. It states: "Fans of the beloved series have much to enjoy ahead of the special, with The War Between the Land and the Sea and a new animation series for CBeebies, which is in development."

Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.