Archie Panjabi has been added to the cast as a villain for Doctor Who Season 15, expected to air on BBC One in May 2025. Details on the character Panjabi will play are unknown.
An Emmy nominee and winner, Panjabi will join a cast that includes Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, Millie Gibson, who returns for a limited time as Ruby Sunday, and the latest companion to join Gatwa in the TARDIS, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu – who formerly featured as a separate character in Boom).
The BBC and Disney+ declined to comment when approached for a statement by Deadline. Panjabi is, however, the first villain of the new series to be announced alongside Ncuti’s Time Lord. Whether Panjabi will star in a guest or recurring role is unclear.
Panjabi is best known for her roles as Maya Roy in Life on Mars and Nas Kamal in Blindspot. Panjabi is further recognised for roles in The Fall, Shetland, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Departure, Snowpiercer, and Still Open All Hours. For her role as Kalinda Sharma in The Good Wife, Panjabi won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series in 2010 before being nominated twice again in 2011 and 2012.
Doctor Who returns for the 2024 Christmas Special, Joy to the World, the first festive special to be penned by Steven Moffat since the Peter Capaldi swansong in 2017, Twice Upon A Time, and his second of the Ncuti Gatwa era, having previously written the third episode of his first series, Boom.
More than 800 episodes of Doctor Who and a wealth of connected spinoffs, including The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, Class, and behind-the-scenes documentaries, are available on the BBC iPlayer.
Charlie Condou was also recently added to the cast.
