Remember those rumours that Doctor Who boss Chris Chibnall and/or Jodie Whittaker were leaving the sci-fi series? Well, Chibnall has now come out with a fairly robust rebuttal of the story, describing it as “a lie” that was just cooked up by social media.


“Please write this verbatim – somebody made that up, it was a lie,” Chibnall told RadioTimes.com and other journalists on the Cardiff set of Doctor Who.

“It’s 100% grade-A… shall I say nonsense, or shall I say bullshit?”

“I don’t know how many times to say it. I swear on my life.”

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Noting that work had actually already begin planning the series after the next one (that’s series 13, if you’re counting), Chibnall and his leading lady Jodie Whittaker went on to discuss other false rumours that had sprung up during filming, noting that you can’t believe everything you read online (unless you’re on RadioTimes.com, of course).

“Apparently everyone shut down filming ‘cause I was pregnant,” laughed Whittaker.

“My go-to reaction is always, has that happened? Am I pregnant? Because Twitter says I was…”

“I’m not on social media,” added Chibnall. “But so far these social media resources… probably not very on the mark.”

Instead, fans will just have to wait until the series begins in a few weeks to find out exactly what’s been going on behind-the-scenes. Though if it turns out there’s another Doctor’s Daughter storyline coming along, well, you heard it here first…


Doctor Who returns to BBC One in early 2020