David Farnor | On 20, Jul 2018

Comic-Con kicked off in style this year, with the arrival of the brand new face of Doctor Who: Jodie Whittaker.

The first female Time Lord in the BBC’s long-running sci-fi/fantasy series, her upcoming season heralds the start of something hugely anticipated and equally long awaited. At her side will be Bradley Walsh as companion Graham, with the duo joined by Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as Ryan and Yasmin.

After a brief teaser video gave us a glimpse of each of them, Doctor Who’s showrunner, Chris Chibnall was on hand with the cast at Comic-Con to debut a full trailer, one that sets the tone for a bright, colourful, upbeat new era for the series.

“Right, this is gonna be fun,” she promises at the start of the trailer, before going on to demonstrate that over and over in person at the San Diego event.

“The Doctor is a pillar of hope, striving for brightness and inclusion,” she emphasised at the panel, before going on to drop what may be the best quote of the event: “It’s 2018. Women shouldn’t be a genre.”

“I have never approached a role thinking of it ‘How would a woman play this?’ because I am one. I don’t know if a guy has gone: ‘How would a guy do this scene?’ You just are,” she added. “My approach to this is coming from a very instinctive place, which feels genderless to me … There’s really no rules, and I’ve got two hearts, so I can do whatever I want!”

Then she went on to crash the Her Universe Fashion Show, sporting her new costume – accompanied by her new Sonic Screwdriver.

Jodie Whittaker made a surprise appearance at tonight's @HerUniverse Fashion Show! #SDCC #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/8YFMihhqTq

— #DoctorWho @ SDCC (@DoctorWho_BBCA) July 20, 2018

Season 11 of Doctor Who will premiere this autumn with a feature-length opener, followed by nine normal-length episodes. And if all that news doesn’t already have you counting down the weeks, the new trailer should send ripples through your time vortex.

“All of this is new to me,” Whittaker’s Doctor says in the video. “New faces, new worlds, new times. So if I asked really, really nicely, would you be my new best friends?”

 

Watch: The first trailer for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who

15th July 2018

This autumn, Doctor Who returns, but as you’ve never seen it before, as Jodie Whittaker steps into the TARDIS.

Whittaker, who has impressed time and time again in everything from Broadchurch to Attack the Block, is the first ever woman in the iconic role of the Time Lord, taking the series in a promising new direction – helped by new showrunner Chris Chibnall, who is also making his debut after the departure of Steven Moffat.

Now, we finally have our glimpse of Whittaker properly in action, after her brief appearance at the end of 2017’s Christmas special. At her side will be Bradley Walsh as companion Graham, with the duo joined by Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as Ryan and Yasmin – and we get a look at all of them in this intriguing half-minute tease.

“I want to tell the fans not to be scared by my gender. Because this is a really exciting time, and Doctor Who represents everything that’s exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one,” Whittaker said in a statement when she was first announced as the new Time Lord.

The trailer was unveiled after the final of the 2018 World Cup – and arrives shortly after the Beeb added the whole of the modern incarnation of Doctor Who (from Christopher Ecclestone to Peter Capaldi) to BBC iPlayer as a bumper box set. Watch the new video below, before going on a binge across time and space to get ready for a new Time Lord:

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