Doctor Who returns to Disney+ on April 12 with the same Doctor but new adventures and a new companion. Multiverse of Color joined stars Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor) and Varada Sethu (Belinda Chandra) for a press conference to discuss the new season.
Unlike Ruby Sunday, Sethu’s Belinda Chandra is not so easily impressed by the Doctor.
“Belinda has absolutely no interest and is not charmed at all by the Doctor,” said Gatwa with a laugh. “And so the bond…it’s slower, but it’s just as deep as any that there’s been, maybe more so. So the payoff is that they really value each other, and they value each other’s value systems.”
“She doesn’t want to be somebody else’s little adventure.” added Sethu. “She wants to go back to her life. And so she challenges him, she holds him accountable. And eventually they become very aligned, and they realize that they need to work together to be this team.”
When asked about being the first Doctor-companion pair to consist entirely of actors of color, Sethu acknowledged the importance of the casting while also not letting it create any pressure.
“I try not to take on the pressure of that, because I want to free myself up to being creative, to being playful. And I think if you put on the pressure of being the first of anything, it takes away, in some ways, the joy, because you don’t want to feel like you’re being scrutinized.”
“Now that we’re kind of out the other end of that period of filming, I can now look back and appreciate how special an experience it was and how special it is to [fans]. I’m getting messages from people all around the world saying it means a lot to see a brown person or a team that’s comprised of people of color. And it means a lot to me personally, but also it’s lovely to hear that it’s the same for other people out there.”
For both actors this is a return to Doctor Who, with Gatwa returning for his second season as the Doctor and Sethu taking on a new role.
“It was definitely a joy coming back to the second season and being able to explore the character further, having him feel more settled in my skin. It’s just the natural process of having done a season and coming back for the next one,” said Gatwa. “So yeah, there was there was more comfortability, there were more areas I wanted to explore. “
For Sethu returning to the show was a shock.
“It was unbelievable. I literally could not believe that I was able to come back, because I didn’t know there was a history of actors who had played another role and then came back.” said Sethu. “I was very sad about that, because I had such a great time [filming ‘Boom’]… So it meant a lot.”
The season 2 logline reads: “The Doctor meets Belinda Chandra and begins an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wilder terrors than ever before.”
Doctor Who Season 2 premieres Saturday, April 12 (12:00 a.m. PDT / 3:00 a.m. EDT) on Disney+. New episodes from the eight-part season will premiere weekly.