{"id":417765,"date":"2026-04-26T01:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T01:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T01:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T01:47:12","slug":"doctor-who-star-peter-capaldi-responds-to-ncuti-gatwa-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417765\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Doctor Who’ Star Peter Capaldi Responds to Ncuti Gatwa Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPeter Capaldi<\/a>, who starred as the Twelfth Doctor in \u201cDoctor Who<\/a>\u201d from 2013 to 2017, recently told The Times of London<\/a> that he doesn\u2019t understand why some people take the show \u201cso seriously\u201d when asked about the backlash to the castings of Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa. Whittaker was the first woman to play the Doctor, and Gatwa was the first openly queer Black actor in the role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt reflects its times and it\u2019s a good thing in the world, though it\u2019s become a bit too big, too important for the BBC or whoever,\u201d Capaldi said. \u201cWhen I was a kid and watched it, it was just a monster show in the corner of the room. I don\u2019t know why people take it so seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGatwa, who starred in the latest season of \u201cDoctor Who,\u201d was met with racist and homophobic backlash online when his casting was revealed. Showrunner and writer Russell T Davies said during a recent masterclass at Series Mania<\/a> that, in the era of social media, it\u2019s easy to \u201cfall into the trap of talking about fans and assuming that means the online voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think they are different things. I know they\u2019re different things, I absolutely know that,\u201d Davies said. \u201cAnd that online voice, which is hostile, exists on X, which is a hate site. We shouldn\u2019t be surprised to find hatred on it, because it\u2019s a hate site \u2026 It\u2019s very dangerously assumed that that is the fan voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDavies added that he understands that longtime \u201cDoctor Who\u201d fans don\u2019t \u201chave to like the show,\u201d but hopes they can \u201chave a great time disagreeing\u201d in a respectful way.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFandom is creative and brilliant and fun, but it\u2019s all getting soured,\u201d he added. \u201cTurn those phones off for anyone under 16, chuck them in the bin. I literally am evangelical about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+ ended its partnership with the BBC<\/a> in October 2025 after the two co-produced two seasons of \u201cDoctor Who.\u201d The most recent season finale saw Gatwa exit the series to make way for Billie Piper, who played companion Rose Tyler during David Tennant\u2019s run in the early 2000s. It was not made clear if Piper will be the next Doctor or is returning as a companion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Capaldi, who starred as the Twelfth Doctor in \u201cDoctor Who\u201d from 2013 to 2017, recently told The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,40748,93,61,60,35618],"class_list":["post-417765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-doctor-who","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-peter-capaldi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}