Good To Meet You, Good To Greet You: BBC Officially Introduces Varada Sethu As Fifteenth Doctor’s Second Companion

While set to succeed Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday in the 2025 'Doctor Who' series, the two are set to adventure together at least for a bit

There are four weeks until Doctor Who returns for its first full series since 2021 and on Disney+ for most of the world, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. To mark it, the BBC has confirmed what it’s got in store for next season, coming in 2025. While Millie Gibson’s departure as companion Ruby Sunday was not confirmed, Varada Sethu’s joining as a new companion was.

“I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is such an honor to be a part of the Whoniverse, and I’m so grateful to the whole Doctor Who family — because that is what they are — for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel so at home,” Sethu remarked in a statement. “I couldn’t ask for a better team than Ncuti and Millie to be on this adventure with. This is SO much fun!”

Showrunner, writer and executive producer Russell T Davies also chimed in, as usual, adding, “I first worked with Varada on a BBC production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it’s a joy to welcome her on board the TARDIS. Right now in the studio, shooting for 2025, we’ve got Ncuti, Millie and Varada fighting side by side — we need all three, because the stakes are higher than ever!”

While character name still hasn’t been given, the 32-year-old might be known best as Cinta, a member of the rebel faction that raided the Aldhani garrison in the Star Wars series Andor, but also appeared in the final season of the Cinemax series Strike Back, subtitled Vendetta. Her other credits, besides that A Midsummer Night’s Dream production include Jurassic World: Dominion and Now You See Me 2.

Gibson and Sethu are the first pair of women companions since series 3 companion Martha Jones (played by Freema Agyeman)’s return arc in series 4, where she teamed with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble for “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky” before actually traveling for an actual adventure with them in “The Doctor’s Daughter”. The Seventh Doctor era serial “Dragonfire” saw the changeover from Bonnie Langford’s Mel to Sophie Aldred’s Ace, and following the notorious death of Adric in “Earthshock” the Fifth Doctor still had Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton and Tegan Jovanka, played by Janet Fielding. Having two companions at all is still a relatively recent last occurrence, as both the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors had two companions in their final series.

Gibson and Gatwa’s solo begins with the release of two episodes on Friday, May 10 at 7 pm Eastern as part of a global simulcast on Disney+ everywhere but the UK with its 12 am Saturday, May 11 GMT release on BBC iPlayer which is the equivalent time in their time zone, followed by its regular airing on BBC One. The eight-episode season continues weekly in that release format, and the 2025 series is expected to do much of the same, ie give or take a two-episode release somewhere.

Source: Doctor Who