Ncuti Gatwa (the Fifteenth Doctor) and Varada Sethu, who is rumoured to be the new Doctor Who companion as of 2025, have been spotted filming for Series 15, alongside new director, Amanda Brotchie.

Sethu hasn’t been confirmed as the new companion yet, but she’s been seen filming extensively on location with Gatwa, apparently in a 1950s setting, so it’s looking increasingly likely that she will step on board the TARDIS next year. (We’re not buying the guff about Millie Gibson being dropped; companions come and go quite often!)

Amanda Brotchie is an Australia director who has previously helmed episodes of Gentleman Jack, Girlboss, and The Letdown; she also co-founded High Wire Films with her husband, actor Adam Zwar, and producer, Nicole Minchin. Though not confirmed as directing an episode of Doctor Who Series 15, her name was spotted on a crewmember’s online CV at the start of the month and she’s now been seen at a diner in Leominster, Herefordshire, with Ncuti and Sethu.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Brotchie is that, to get her PhD in linguistics, she lived in a remote village on an island in Vanuatu, researching the local language!

It looks like actor, Lewis Cornay (The Book of Mormon) will be playing Logan Cheever, someone who works at the 10¢ diner in Miami, Florida.

So is Sethu’s character from 1950s America? Or is this being filmed out of sequence, so these scenes are part of a trip in the TARDIS, and she’ll actually be from a different time period?

We expect the BBC to announce Varada soon, especially with extensive outdoors filming taking place.

And if you’re not afraid of potential spoilers, head over to CultBox for a possibly explosive revelation that ties into the history of Doctor Who and its lead…