Alan Cumming Might Be Jodie Whittaker’s New ‘Doctor Who’ Foil
Doctor Who has finally made a deal with Alan Cumming, but not for the title role. Instead, reports confirm that Cumming may recur as a new “nice” baddie for series star Jodie Whittaker, appearing in Season 11 this fall.
Cumming apparently let slip as much during an episode of the Homo Sapiens podcast, albeit without specifying when in the new season to expect him. By the Good Wife and X-Men star’s admission, Cumming will take the role of King James I, who followed Queen Elizabeth I in the 1600s. Despite a seemingly fixed place in history, Cumming implied the James role might recur in future episodes (h/t Entertainment Weekly):
I’m about to go and do an episode of Doctor Who. I’m so excited … [I’m] like a nice baddie. I’m James I, so I’m kind of like a dandy, foppy sort of coward who comes all right in the end. They said he might come back.
Back in 2017, Cumming revealed that he’d twice been approached for the central role of Doctor Who over the last decade, but declined for its commitment to filming in Cardiff, Wales eight months of the year. As far as Season 11, Whittaker is otherwise joined by new companions played by Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole. Chris Chibnall has also taken over as writer and showrunner from Steven Moffat.
Other details of Whittaker’s Doctor Who debut will arrive in in the next few months, so stay tuned.
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