Doctor Who’s TARDIS Roundels Go on Sale — plus Star Wars and More

Morning News · Tuesday 20 October 2026

Fancy owning a piece of the TARDIS? This morning’s edition starts with a rare chance to buy part of the Doctor’s ship. There is also a Star Wars takeover of the Super Bowl, the big winners at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Michael Douglas on trying to leave Marvel, a two-season Netflix order for Gwyneth Paltrow, a new Sony thriller for Tom Holland and a UK box office weekend that saw Street Fighter land on top.

The News That Matters

Doctor Who is selling roundels from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors’ TARDIS

• New development: Doctor Who and the memorabilia specialist Propstore announced the sale on Monday 19 October, with a teaser on the show’s official BBC social channels
• When: Wednesday 21 October from 1pm BST, first come, first served, through Propstore’s official website
• The set: The TARDIS interior unveiled in “The Star Beast” in November 2023 and used by David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor
• UK availability: The sale is open to UK buyers from 1pm BST on Wednesday; prices and numbers have not been announced. Doctor Who streams on BBC iPlayer

The roundels are the circular wall details that have defined the TARDIS interior since 1963, and now a few of them are leaving the ship. The BBC and Propstore are selling what they describe as some of the last remaining roundels from the console room built for the 60th anniversary, the vast, glowing set first seen when Tennant and Catherine Tate returned in “The Star Beast” and later home to Gatwa’s Doctor.

How many are available, and at what price, has not been revealed, so anyone hoping to buy should be ready when the sale opens at 1pm on Wednesday. While the show itself waits for the BBC to choose who makes its next era, it is a nice distraction. Yesterday Tom Baker gave his advice to whoever plays the next Doctor, and if you want to revisit the Tennant and Gatwa years, our Doctor Who watch guide shows where to stream every era in the UK.

Star Wars takes over the Super Bowl, with Anthony Daniels voicing C-3PO

• New development: ESPN, Lucasfilm, Disney and the NFL announced Star Wars Funday Football on Monday 19 October
• What it is: A real-time animated alternate telecast of Super Bowl LXI that turns the players into animated avatars, with Star Wars characters stepping in at key moments and Easter eggs throughout
• When and where: Sunday 14 February 2027, live on Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and the ESPN App in the US
• UK availability: Not live in the UK; the animated game will be available on demand on Disney+ in the UK shortly after the live telecast

After Toy Story, The Simpsons and Monsters editions, ESPN’s animated Funday Football broadcasts are going to a galaxy far, far away, and to the biggest game of all. It is the first time a Super Bowl has been given an animated alternate telecast. Anthony Daniels, the only actor to appear in every Skywalker saga film, returns as C-3PO, and the game will be rebuilt as it happens using tracking data and Sony’s Beyond Sports technology. Commentators, settings and the rest of the characters will be revealed nearer the time.

It is part of Lucasfilm’s celebrations for 50 years of Star Wars, and the announcement says a newly restored version of the 1977 original returns to cinemas five days after the game, on 19 February. There is more for US viewers on Disney+ before then: SC+ starts Star Wars-themed “Hyperspace Highlights” from Tuesday 20 October, and an animated Darth Vader will interview a Monday Night Football player each week from 26 October. It is a brighter Star Wars headline after the weekend news that Taika Waititi’s film has been put on ice.

Watch the announcement

Brooklyn Horror Film Festival names Mountain King and Kick On its best features

• New development: The festival’s 2026 jury awards were revealed on Monday 19 October, Fangoria reported
• Dark Matter strand: Best Feature to Gabrielle Christensen’s Scandinavian folk horror Mountain King; Best Director to Marion Le Corroller for Species; Best Performance to Hailley Lauren and Kelsey Pribilski for American Dollhouse
• Head Trip strand: Best Feature and Best Director to Nick Kozakis’s Australian thriller Kick On, which closes the festival on 22 October; Best Performance to Aminata Thiboult for the vampire film I Love Paris
• UK availability: No UK release dates have been confirmed for the winners

Brooklyn’s jury went for a folk tale and a bloodbath. Mountain King follows Hannah, who travels to the Scandinavian highlands to surprise her boyfriend and meet his family, only for her arrival to unlock family secrets and something older and more dangerous. “We’re so thankful to receive this award,” said Christensen, whose film had a sold-out East Coast premiere at the festival.

Kick On, from Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism director Kozakis, sends four friends into the drug-fuelled lair of a mobster’s reckless son, where a night out turns into a fight for survival. Marion Le Corroller’s Best Director win comes a week after her debut feature took the top prize at Sitges, and the Best Short award went to Yuki Hara’s Summer Project, set in rural Japan in the 1990s. The festival also hosted the international premiere of the Polish folk horror ÒPI.

Michael Douglas says Marvel would not let him quit as Hank Pym

• New development: Douglas spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast; Variety reported his comments on Monday 19 October
• His role: Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, in Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
• What he said: “I would have been killed off after the second one, but they wouldn’t let me”
• UK availability: All four films are streaming on Disney+ in the UK

Michael Douglas has never hidden that he was ready to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now he says the studio simply said no. Asked whether he had wanted Hank Pym killed off, he said he would have gone after Ant-Man and the Wasp, but Marvel kept him on. In 2024 he said he had pitched a spectacular death for Quantumania, shrinking to the size of an ant and exploding, and that he did not expect to return for a fourth film.

Douglas said he originally signed up out of curiosity. “I said, ‘I’ve never done a green screen movie,’” he recalled, before adding: “It’s hard acting, man… We did Ant-Man and Paul Rudd was a wonderful actor, a lovely group, but then you can’t get out of it.” Whether Pym returns is now up to Marvel.

Gwyneth Paltrow lands her first lead TV role in Netflix’s two-season thriller The Apology

• New development: Netflix has given the A24 drama a two-season, straight-to-series order after buying it pre-emptively, Deadline reported on Monday 19 October
• The story: Evelyn (Paltrow) and her husband Caleb, whose son was murdered 18 years ago, finally hear a stranger confess, only to learn the killer may get a reduced sentence, and decide to take matters into their own hands
• Behind the camera: Written and run by British writer Joe Murtagh (The Woman in the Wall, Say Nothing); Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round) directs
• UK availability: Netflix in the UK. No release date yet

In a week of upheaval at Netflix, including the exit of film chief Dan Lin that we reported last night, the streamer has also made a big TV bet. US and Canada scripted series head Jinny Howe ordered two seasons of The Apology over the weekend, pairing Oscar winner Paltrow with Oscar winner Vinterberg. It is Paltrow’s first lead role on television, and she also executive produces. She has stayed largely away from acting in recent years to focus on Goop, though she appeared in Marty Supreme.

The project comes from Cut To, the A24-based company run by Joe Hipps, which has already sold Trigger Point with Joel Edgerton and a Jack Thorne espionage thriller starring Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour to Netflix. Deadline notes that Peter Rice, who started as Netflix’s content chief on Monday, was not involved in the decision.

Tom Holland and Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce team up on Sony thriller Penthouse

• New development: Sony Pictures has bought Pearce’s original idea pre-emptively, Deadline reported on Monday 19 October
• The film: A thriller developed as a starring vehicle for Holland; the plot is under wraps
• Producers: Tom Holland, Harry Holland and Will South for Billy17, with Pearce for Point of No Return
• UK availability: No release date has been announced. UK date not yet confirmed

Fresh from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has taken more than $2 billion worldwide, Tom Holland is staying with Sony for something smaller and sharper. Pearce, whose credits include Iron Man 3, Hotel Artemis, The Fall Guy and the upcoming The Thomas Crown Affair, will write the script, with Holland and his Billy17 partners closely involved in its development. Our essay on Brand New Day looks at why the film struck such a chord.

Holland’s slate is filling up. He is also starring in and producing Sony’s Fred Astaire film, alongside Margaret Qualley, Sabrina Carpenter and Talia Ryder. With a title like Penthouse, a high-rise thriller seems likely, but Sony is not giving anything away yet.

Street Fighter knocks out Forgotten Island to top the UK box office, as Brand New Day passes £100m

• New development: Weekend figures for 16 to 18 October, reported by Screen on Monday 19 October
• Top five: 1. Street Fighter £2.3m; 2. Forgotten Island £1.3m; 3. Verity £1.1m (£9.5m total); 4. Other Mommy £924,000 (£3.8m); 5. Jailer 2 £754,000
• Milestones: Spider-Man: Brand New Day reached £100.1m in its 12th weekend; The Odyssey is up to £87.8m, the 10th-highest total ever in the UK and Ireland
• UK availability: All five are in UK cinemas now. Next weekend brings Clayface, Wildwood, Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, Ali G: Who Iz I? and Klara and the Sun

Paramount’s Street Fighter opened with £2.3m from 594 cinemas, well ahead of the £1.6m start for Mortal Kombat 2 in May and almost level with the entire UK run of the 1995 film. DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island, which our review called the studio’s most memorable film in years, opened in second with £1.3m from 628 sites.

Further down, Disney’s Whalefall started with £508,000 and Resident Evil reached £13.6m. The documentary NAZA took £173,000 from just 51 screens, one of the best averages of the weekend. For everything that opened on Friday, see our Weekly Cinema Pack.

Watch the trailer

If you could own one prop from any era of Doctor Who, what would it be?