Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: bbc, disney, doctor who, Ncuti Gatwa
Doctor Who: Disney Begins Introducing Ncuti Gatwa to The World (VIDEO)
Doctor Who is back in a few weeks, and the big Disney promotional push for the new series - and Ncuti Gatwa's skyrocketing star - starts NOW!
Article Summary
- Disney's PR engine gears up to introduce Ncuti Gatwa to the world as the new Doctor Who.
- Entertainment Weekly's cover story features Gatwa discussing his experience.
- Gatwa is the fourth Scottish actor to take on the iconic role of The Doctor.
- Previous Doctors have offered Gatwa their support in joining the "exclusive club."
We're just a few weeks away from the premiere of a new series (or season for Americans) of Doctor Who globally on Disney+ and BBC One in the UK, and the promotional push is on! Of course, the BBC and British media will do their bit to promote the series in the UK and internationally on the BBC's official YouTube Channel, but it's The Mouse with their massive PR machine that will make big swings to bring the series to the US public consciousness, and who better to front that than the new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa himself? He and the show are the big feature in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, and here he is in an EW video explaining the show and all the previous Doctors to newcomers.
Is it a bit of fluff? Of course, it is! That's what all promotion for a TV series is unless it's for a serious news or documentary show! Doctor Who is about fun and joy, and Gatwa is the most joyful and exuberant new Doctor for ages, not that many of them weren't. He has that ability to make fun infectious, which makes him the perfect Doctor for the new show and new era. Gatwa joins the league of actors who grew up watching Doctor Who – Peter Davison, David Tennant, and Peter Capaldi watched the series as children. Davision was a fan of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. Capaldi watched First Doctor William Hartnell live on TV as a child and stayed a superfan ever since. Tennant is also a massive fan who watched Fourth Doctor Tom Baker (who almost certainly watched the series in the 1960s when he was younger but doesn't talk about that) and Davison as a child of the 80s. Gatwa watched Tennant's run as a child. He is the fourth Scottish actor to play The Doctor.
"They've all been absolute angels," Gatwa shared during his EW interview, noting how previous Doctors such as Tennant, Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, Matt Smith, and Sylvester McCoy reached out to him after his casting was announced. "It's a very small, very exclusive club, and it's just nice to know that other people have gone through that experience as well. That solidarity from the other Doctors has been really nice."
Gatwa is currently filming the second series of Doctor Who in Wales and may not be available to be flown out to the US to do the talk shows, which is the biggest campaign to put a show in the public's mind. Many of these print and video promos were prepared weeks, if not months in advance. Maybe he'll have a break in filming and hit the circuit. The point is that this is a push not just for the show but to prepare him for international stardom because his career is going to last beyond Doctor Who, and the big part starts now.