Doctor Who ‘lines up’ next big villain for new series

‘The Good Wife’ star will reportedly take on new role

Doctor Who has reportedly cast Emmy Award-winning actor Archie Panjabi as a villain in the forthcoming new series, which is set to air in 2025.

According to Deadline, Panjabi will join Ncuti Gatwa, who currently stars as the Time Lord alongside Millie Gibson, who plays the Doctor’s companion Ruby Sunday, and Varada Sethu, who will join the series as another co-companion to the Doctor, named Belinda Chandra. The Independent has contacted the BBC and Disney+ for comment.

Panjabi has appeared in the 2002 film, Bend It Like Beckham, as well as a variety of TV and film projects The Constant Gardener, A Good Year, A Mighty Heart and BBC’s The Fall and Shetland.

She is best known for playing Kalinda Sharma across six seasons of the CBS series The Good Wife, for which she received three Emmy nominations and took home the trophy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2010.

Panjabi will be joined by Sethu, who is best known for appearing in the Star Wars spin-off show Andor and the Strike Back series.

It had been reported that Sethu would replace former Coronation Street actor Millie Gibson, who plays Gatwa’s companion, but it has since been announced that Sethu will play an additional companion for Gatwa’s second season, which will be aired in 2025.

The long-running series, which began on the BBC in 1963, was rebooted back in 2005 by showrunner Russel T Davies, who returned to write and executive produce the new 2024 season.

Panjabi pictured in 2016 (PA)

Gatwa’s first season of Doctor Who aired earlier this year, with the show being aired on both BBC and Disney+ for the first time.

Other cast members who we know will appear in the 2025 series include Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood.

Gatwa previously confirmed he would be staying for at least two seasons of Doctor Who, telling The Rolling Stone: “[Theatre] kept me warm and it held me all night, even if I was broke. But I’m planning on getting back to it next year, after I finish season 2 of Doctor Who.”

Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa and Varadu Sethu pictured together ahead of the 2025 series (BBC)

However, when the 2024 series finale aired in June, it was subject to mixed reviews.

TV critic Ed Power said in The Independent’s review that the series ended with an “anticlimax” when the true identity of Ruby Sunday’s parents were revealed.

Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson in ‘Doctor Who' (Natalie Seery/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios)

“Gatwa is a great Doctor out of the gate – and it is slightly beside the point that he’s been saddled with some ropy plots, exemplified nowhere better than in this finale,” wrote Power. “After so much hope, hype, and hoopla, it’s all a bit of a letdown.