Doctor Who companion Millie Gibson is being dropped from the BBC sci-fi show and will be replaced for Ncuti Gatwa’s second series by actress Varada Seethu according to reported made by The Mirror.
The decision by showrunner Russell T Davies to write out the former Coronation Street star, who plays orphan Ruby Sunday, was made last year after filming on her first run ended. The shock twist will come as a surprise to fans who only watched her on-screen debut in the festive episode last month.
Gibson, will not appear in the 2024 Christmas special later this year and will make only a handful of appearances across Ncuti’s second series as the Doctor during 2025. The eight episodes she has filmed already will air from May, the BBC has announced. After that, it will not be Gibson joining him on his time-travels in the Tardis but new companion Seethu, who has already started filming at the studios in Cardiff.
The actress is best known for her role as Cinta in Disney’s 2022 Star Wars spin-off Andor.
A guest companion is likely to accompany Gatwa for his Christmas outing this year.
The decision for Ruby to exit so soon will shock fans who expected her to stretch out her time-travelling across at least two full series. When she and the Doctor burst onto the screen last month they proved popular, with 7.3million viewers watching in the first week of release, making it one of the BBC’s biggest hits of the year.
Following Russell’s decision to write her character out, Gibson has now almost finished on the show and will only be back “to tie up loose ends” in the coming weeks, according to insiders.
“Millie Gibson has all but left now and there’s a brand new companion, which is really exciting. Russell is keeping things moving and isn’t letting the grass grow, that’s for sure.”
In next year’s series her character is expected to appear in just three of the eight episodes, with one of them a standalone story wrapping up Ruby Sunday’s journey with the Doctor.
Gatwa has been reported on ‘breaking his silence’ on social media after his co-star Millie Gibson was dropped from the show. Once news emerged of Millie being dropped, the actor took to social media and shared a picture of him and Millie and penned: “My lil” accompanied by a heart emoji.
Gibson had previously been branded a ‘diva’ after being ‘annoyed’ about night shoots.
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