A Reddit post published this week claims AMC Global Media, Sony Pictures Television, and BBC Studios are preparing to announce a full reboot of Doctor Who. According to the supposed leak, which presents itself as a draft press release dated May 11, the three companies will co-finance a three-series run with production beginning in 2027 and a global premiere in 2028.
The BBC has not confirmed any of this. The document is unverified, sourced from the Doctor Who Leaks subreddit, and should be treated as rumor. It is, however, a plausible rumor.
The BBC’s partnership with Disney+ is over. BBC bosses have acknowledged that financial pressures mean the show likely needs another co-financing partner to continue at its current production scale. Onelowerlight Disney aired two seasons with showrunner Russell T. Davies, and has now pulled out of the deal. The Hugo Award The BBC is left holding a flagship property with a funding gap and no announced solution.
What the BBC has confirmed is a 2026 Christmas Special written by Russell T. Davies. Fandompulse Davies described it as “a huge, spectacular Christmas treatment with heroes and monsters and battles and romance in a world on the edge of disaster.” Whether that special marks Davies’ exit from the show entirely is unknown. The BBC’s official statement promised only that “plans for the next series” would be announced “in due course,” which is not a commitment to anything specific.
The Davies era delivered two seasons under Disney+ and left the show in a complicated position. Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor left the TARDIS at the end of the second series, Billie Piper’s surprise regeneration went unresolved, and the show went quiet on the Gallifreyan front with no word on the future. HiddenGemsBooks Ratings declined across both Disney seasons. Disney did not renew. The math on that outcome is not complicated.
According to the supposed press release, the BBC will retain UK broadcast rights, AMC Global Media will handle international premieres and streaming across its portfolio, and Sony Pictures Television will lead worldwide distribution and franchise expansion. The document describes “a newly imagined narrative, refreshed cast, and expanded storytelling scope while honoring the core mythology.” Onelowerlight
That word, reboot, is going to ignite the fandom. Doctor Who has historically used regeneration to reinvent itself without wiping the slate. The classic series handed off to the revival. The Eccleston era handed off to Tennant. Each transition retained continuity while refreshing the cast. A full reboot declares that continuity broken, which is a different kind of reset entirely.
ComicBook notes the BBC has good relations with AMC in particular, and that the leak corresponds with BBC statements acknowledging co-financing would be necessary going forward. Onelowerlight AMC is an interesting partner. The network built a television empire on The Walking Dead, knows how to run long-form genre franchises internationally, and has been looking for prestige IP. Doctor Who is exactly the kind of globally recognized brand AMC would want in its portfolio.
Sony’s involvement as distribution lead also fits. Sony Pictures Television runs one of the largest international TV distribution operations in the business. If the BBC wants Doctor Who back in front of a genuinely global audience after the Disney window closes, Sony has the infrastructure to do it.
None of this is confirmed by other sources. The May 11 date on the supposed document is less than two weeks away, which means this either gets confirmed quickly or quietly disappears.
What’s not in doubt is the situation the BBC is in. The Christmas Special is coming. Davies may be writing his goodbye. The show needs money and a new global platform. Whether the answer is AMC and Sony or something else entirely, Doctor Who’s next chapter is being negotiated right now, and the word reboot is already in the room.
If the leak holds, the TARDIS lands in 2028 with a new cast, a new narrative, and two new corporate partners calling the shots alongside the BBC. Whether that produces something worth watching depends entirely on who ends up in the showrunner chair.
What do you think: does Doctor Who need a full reboot, or should the BBC find a way to preserve continuity? Let us know in the comments.
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"Doctor Who... the hell cares?!"
-Crow T. Robot
It's been almost 30 years and that little golden puppet's words have become prophecy.
Is it wrong of me to think they’ll find a way to F it up if this turns out to be true?