Jodie Whittaker Confirms Doctor Who Exit!
Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall to depart Doctor Who next year.
After plentiful speculation over the past year or more, Jodie Whittaker has now confirmed that she is to depart Doctor Who in 2022.
As first reported by the BBC, Whittaker will also be joined by showrunner Chris Chibnall in exiting the show next Autumn. Before that, the 13th Doctor will star in a new six-part Who series to air before 2021 is up and then headline three specials next year.
Taking over from Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker's time as the iconic Time Lord formally began on-screen in October 2018, with that first episode - The Woman Who Fell to Earth - bringing in a mammoth 11.5 million viewers. To contrast that, the most recent Doctor Who outing - this past January's Revolution of the Daleks special - was watched by an audience of 'just' 6.35 million.
In a statement on her impending exit, Whittaker enthused:
"In 2017 I opened my glorious gift box of size 13 shoes. I could not have guessed the brilliant adventures, worlds and wonders I was to see in them. My heart is so full of love for this show, for the team who make it, for the fans who watch it and for what it has brought to my life. And I cannot thank Chris enough for entrusting me with his incredible stories. We knew that we wanted to ride this wave side by side, and pass on the baton together. So here we are, weeks away from wrapping on the best job I have ever had. I don't think I'll ever be able to express what this role has given me. I will carry the Doctor and the lessons I've learnt forever."
Much like Whittaker's Doctor took to our screens in October 2018, Chris Chibnall had been overseeing Doctor Who since 2017 and was the person whose decision it was to replace Capaldi with Jodie.
As part of this news, Chibnall added how he and Whittaker had made a "three series out and out" pact when their journey began. With the upcoming series and specials, that brings that run to a close, with the showrunner now "handing back the Tardis keys".
At this early juncture, there is no replacement confirmed for either Jodie Whittaker or Chris Chibnall, but there'll surely be plenty of rumours and rumblings of who'll be appearing as the next Doctor when the character regenerates in Autumn 2022 to bring to an end to Whittaker and Chibnall's time on this most legendary of shows.