Ncuti Gatwa has bowed out of Doctor Who but, in a change from the norm, his departure from the TARDIS wasn't publicized ahead of time – and an unused promo image from the finale suggests his final scenes were a last-minute change.
Prior to 'The Reality War' hitting our screens, BBC and Disney Plus released an image of a scene from the finale featuring Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor partying with Varada Sethu's Belinda (as first flagged by Bleeding Cool).
The moment of celebration, however, doesn't come to pass – with the companion mostly sidelined until the final few minutes, where the Doctor shifts reality so that Poppy becomes the daughter she's always had (how typically timey-wimey of the show…).
The Doctor then regenerated into a familiar face: Billie Piper. Crucially, though, we're none the wiser as to who she's playing, with the usual 'Introducing…' missing the 'as the Doctor' button.
Somehow, some way, plans changed. These things happen, of course, but rarely do they crop up so transparently in marketing images days before release. One Doctor Who fan on Twitter wrote that it "just proves how late they switched gears" on a "rushed" ending that seemed to suddenly hurtle towards Ncuti Gatwa's goodbye without rhyme or reason.
It's unlikely we'll ever know the full story here but, for his part, Gatwa said on Doctor Who's behind-the-scenes breakdown of the finale that it was "always the plan" to do two seasons because it "demands a lot of you physically and emotionally."
Gatwa added, "I would love to have the energy and the youth to be able to do this for the rest of my life, but my knees are telling me it's time!"
Doctor Who season 2 – otherwise known as the 15th season – is now streaming on BBC and Disney Plus. For more, check out the Doctor Who season 2 release schedule and our list of some of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
