Evening News · Saturday 17 October 2026
Jodie Whittaker has a reassuring word for Whovians facing a long wait for new Doctor Who. Tonight’s edition also finds Dune: Part Three almost finished, Marvel’s TV boss on the Wonder Man cancellation, Kylie Minogue joining Bad Fairies, the London Film Festival’s surprise film, Prime Video’s Fourth Wing leads and Friends heading home to Channel 4.
The News That Matters
Jodie Whittaker says Doctor Who’s “moments of pause” are part of its magic
- New development: The Thirteenth Doctor spoke about the show’s future in an interview published on Saturday 17 October
- Where things stand: The BBC’s production tender is open, and initial pitches from the long-listed producers are due on Friday 23 October
- What happens next: A shortlist in November, with the contract expected to be awarded in spring 2027
- Next series: Planned for transmission in 2028/29
- UK availability: No new episodes are scheduled before 2028/29; earlier series are on BBC iPlayer
The Thirteenth Doctor has a message for worried Whovians. Speaking to Collider while promoting the new season of The Diplomat, Jodie Whittaker said the long gap ahead is nothing new for the series. “I think that the beauty of [Doctor Who] is that it has its moments of pause. It always has,” she said. “A show can’t run this long and not have its moments of pause, but what is so magical about it is every and any direction is a possibility.”
For the next generation of fans, she added, “their doctor can be whoever in whatever moment”. You can go back and join the story at any point, “but what you can’t do is predict the future of it, and that has only ever been exciting.” Whittaker, who admits she had only seen the odd episode before she was cast, says the friendships have lasted too: she had spoken to Mandip Gill three times on the day of the interview.
Her timing is good. The producers on the BBC’s long list have until Friday 23 October to submit their first pitches for the next era, and the BBC will draw up a shortlist in November. Russell T Davies has already suggested that cameras could roll on a new Doctor and companion by summer 2027. Whittaker has history on her side: the show survived a 16-year gap between 1989 and 2005, broken only by the 1996 TV film, and came back as big as ever.
Dune: Part Three is “98% done” as Villeneuve prepares to leave Arrakis
- New development: Editor Joe Walker says the film is in its final stages, and Empire’s new cover story has first-look images
- Director: Denis Villeneuve, adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah
- Empire issue: On sale from Thursday 22 October
- UK release: In cinemas from Friday 18 December 2026
- US release: Friday 18 December 2026
Arrakis is nearly ready. Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker told a Czech outlet that Dune: Part Three is “98% done”, and that he has been through screenings in Dolby Atmos, 7.1, 5.1 and IMAX sound, as well as full IMAX, 70mm, Dolby Vision and several aspect ratios. That is a lot of versions to sign off, and a sign of how big a rollout Warner Bros. and Legendary are planning for December.
Denis Villeneuve has told Empire that this will be his last trip to the desert planet, and that he came back “not out of nostalgia, not because I miss it, but the opposite — I’m tired of it”. He wants to “be severe with the material” rather than complacent. Next for him is James Bond: “When [Dune 3] is done, I need a very powerful rocket to pull me away from Arrakis,” he said. Timothée Chalamet promises something different, calling it “its own beast. It’s its own story, its own siege, its own hail of paranoid isolation.”
Marvel’s TV chief says he “fought for” Wonder Man season two
- New development: Brad Winderbaum discussed the cancellation on The Brandon Davis Show
- Series: Wonder Man, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley
- Status: Renewed for a second season in March 2026, then cancelled in July
- UK availability: All eight episodes are streaming on Disney+
Marvel Television head Brad Winderbaum has admitted he could not save Wonder Man. “I fought for it, I don’t know what to say. It’s complicated,” he said on The Brandon Davis Show. “Sometimes you feel like you’re invincible and can make whatever you want, sometimes, you don’t have leverage, it’s subject to market forces that I like barely understand.”
The comedy from Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest starred Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a struggling actor with secret superpowers, with Ben Kingsley back as Trevor Slattery. Winderbaum still sounds hopeful. “Maybe I’m an idiot, but I still have hope that by some miracle, there’s a way to do something down the road,” he said, although he was unsure a fan campaign could repeat what happened with Daredevil. Marvel’s TV slate keeps growing, as our look at Zodiac and the new Marvel Zombies specials showed, but his advice is simple: if you love a show, watch it.
Kylie Minogue, Catherine Tate and Jonathan Groff join Cynthia Erivo’s Bad Fairies
- New development: Voice cast revealed by Cynthia Erivo at her Hollywood Bowl concert on Thursday 15 October
- Film: Animated musical comedy from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Locksmith Animation, set in contemporary London
- Songs: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (Six), with a score by Isabella Summers of Florence and the Machine
- UK release: In cinemas from Friday 21 May 2027, according to current UK listings
Cynthia Erivo has found her fellow rule-breakers. Kylie Minogue will voice Clowder the Cat Witch, Jonathan Groff is Robin Goodfellow and Catherine Tate plays the Fairy Gothmother, with Erivo leading as Jayne Staplegun. Erivo shared the news from the stage of the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night, revealing that Minogue was sitting in the audience.
“Getting to play both a cat and a witch? It’s a little bit magical, a little bit mischievous and a whole lot of fun,” said Minogue. Doctor Who fans have two reasons to look out for this one: Tate, forever Donna Noble, joins Ncuti Gatwa, who voices Butterwort. Gatwa is having quite a day, as Russell T Davies has just revealed what his lost third Doctor Who series would have looked like. James Acaster, Serrana Su-Ling Bliss and Dee Bradley Baker are also in the cast. Megan Nicole Dong directs, with Olivier Staphylas co-directing, from a screenplay by Deborah Frances-White, and production is under way in London with DNEG Animation.
I Play Rocky is the London Film Festival’s surprise film
- New development: Screened as the BFI London Film Festival surprise film at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday 16 October
- Writer and director: Peter Farrelly directs from a script by Peter Gamble
- Cast: Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone, with Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts and Jay Duplass
- UK release: In UK and Irish cinemas from Friday 6 November 2026, released by Entertainment Film Distributors
The secret is out. The 70th BFI London Film Festival’s surprise film was Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, the true story of how an unknown Sylvester Stallone fought to star in the boxing film he had written. Farrelly introduced the screening himself at the Royal Festival Hall on Friday night.
He told the audience that Peter Gamble’s script showed him how much he didn’t know about the making of Rocky. “This story mirrors Rocky. It’s so similar. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Except I thought, ‘This could be even better, because Rocky is fiction, and this is reality.’” Anthony Ippolito won the lead with a self-tape of three scenes shot in his grandmother’s basement on Long Island. “We never looked past him,” said Farrelly. The festival closes on Sunday with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, and the rest of us can catch I Play Rocky from 6 November, in time for the original film’s 50th anniversary.
Prime Video’s Fourth Wing finds its Violet and Xaden
- New development: Lead casting reported on Thursday 15 October
- Cast: Esther McGregor as Violet Sorrengail; Emilio Sakraya as Xaden Riorson
- Creative team: Showrunner Meredith Averill, with Lisa Joy directing the first episode
- UK availability: Prime Video; UK date not yet confirmed
Basgiath War College has its cadets. Esther McGregor (We Were Liars, Babygirl) will play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya (Those About to Die, Warrior Nun) will play Xaden Riorson in Prime Video’s adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling fantasy novel, Deadline reports. Amazon declined to comment.
In the book, Violet is on course to become a scribe until her mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, forces her to train as a dragon rider, where the only rule is “graduate or die”. Xaden is the brooding, shadow-wielding cadet she is supposed to hate. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society produces with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films. Star Wars fans may remember McGregor, Ewan McGregor’s daughter, from a small role in Obi-Wan Kenobi, while Sakraya, a fan favourite for the part, has just finished playing Koza in the third season of Netflix’s One Piece.
Friends returns to Channel 4 in January
- New development: Channel 4 announced the deal on Thursday 15 October
- What: All ten seasons, free to watch and stream on Channel 4 and E4
- When: January 2027; the exact date has not been announced
- UK streaming: HBO Max remains the show’s UK subscription streaming home
Friends is going back to its original UK home. Channel 4 has bought the free-to-air rights to all ten seasons from Warner Bros., and the sitcom will be free to watch and stream on Channel 4 and E4 from January 2027. It was last broadcast on Channel 4 in 2011.
Channel 4 first aired the show in the mid-1990s, and E4 took it on when the digital channel launched in 2001, so for a generation of British viewers this really is a homecoming. “Most of us remember exactly where we were when we watched the Friends finale!” said Polly Scates, Channel 4’s head of acquisitions. HBO Max stays the show’s UK streaming home, but from January you won’t need a subscription to spend an evening at Central Perk.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
Tonight’s news is mostly about waiting. Doctor Who fans face the longest wait of all, but Jodie Whittaker is right that a pause has never been the end for this show, and the next few weeks of the tender should tell us much more. In the meantime, Arrakis is almost ready for December, I Play Rocky gives UK cinemagoers an underdog story to cheer in November, and Friends comes home in January.
Is Doctor Who’s pause a chance to reinvent the show, or are you already missing the TARDIS?