Everything We Know About Doctor Who Season 3
4. Season 3 Was Supposed To Start Filming Earlier This Year
So if Season 3 was already being planned and written, and it was supposed to star Ncuti Gatwa, and RTD once promised us "annual Doctor Who" with "no gap years", that has to mean that it was supposed to have started filming by now.
Assuming a consistent release window of Spring 2026, Season 3 would already need to be in the can to accommodate the show's extensive post-production and visual effects process. For reference, Season 2 finished filming in May 2024 – almost a full year before its April 2025 debut – giving some indication of how much lead time the show has required in recent years.
And sure enough, it was Gatwa himself who pretty much confirmed all this to be the case. In a cut line from The Graham Norton Show in October 2024, he stated that, "We are filming a third series next year."
This is hardly some shocking revelation – as mentioned, the production pipeline of the show combined with RTD's "annual Doctor Who" desire means that of course the next season would need to be filming by now.
It's actually quite sad to think that, had things gone to plan, we would be right in the thick of all the usual set pictures and Reddit plot leaks, along with the customary quote from RTD where he hypes the next season finale as the greatest thing since sliced bread.