Who Will Make the Next Doctor Who? The Three Companies in the Running

Morning News · Tuesday 27 October 2026

The race to make the next Doctor Who has reached its first cut-off, so this morning we look at the three companies reported to be in the running. Also today: an official art book for The Mandalorian and Grogu, Bill Nighy joining Alfonso Cuarón’s cult horror series, the Godzilla Minus One director’s first Hollywood cast, and four new horror projects, from a game adaptation to a writer’s block nightmare.

The News That Matters

Update: Who will make the next Doctor Who? The three companies in the running

• What’s new: The first round of pitching is over. Under the BBC’s published tender timetable, the producers on its longlist had until 23 October to send in a short editorial outline, and a shortlist of no more than four or five is due to be told on 6 November. The BBC says all its dates are indicative. No decision has been announced
• Hat Trick Mercurio: The company Jed Mercurio runs with Hat Trick founder Jimmy Mulville, whose Hat Trick is best known for Have I Got News for You. Mercurio, who created Line of Duty and Bodyguard and wrote Cardiac Arrest, is reported to be attached as an executive producer. He is also a science fiction fan who created the BBC alien invasion drama Invasion: Earth in 1998
• World Productions: The ITV Studios-owned producer of Line of Duty, Bodyguard, Vigil and Karen Pirie has submitted a separate bid and is reported to be leading ITV Studios’ effort. Its chief executive, Simon Heath, told Radio Times before the deadline: “I think I know what I would do with it”
• STV Studios: The Glasgow-based group behind Blue Lights and Criminal Record, which stars former Doctor Peter Capaldi, is reported to have teamed up with Screen Scotland on a bid that would move production to Scotland for the first time
• Who else: Two BBC Studios labels are also expected to bid, and Deadline, which first reported the three names, says its list is not complete
• UK availability: The winner is due to be chosen in the spring, with the BBC’s timetable pointing to March 2027. The next series is expected on the BBC in the 2028/29 season. No date has been set. Every episode so far is on BBC iPlayer

The bidder names come from Deadline’s reporting, carried this week by Bleeding Cool and also reported by Radio Times and TV Zone. None of the companies has commented. Since we covered the tender’s first deadline and the first reported bids earlier this month, the opening round has closed and the next cut is in sight.

What strikes us is how different the three visions could be. A Mercurio Doctor Who would surely bring the tension and twisty plotting of Line of Duty. World Productions knows how to make big, mainstream BBC drama. And a TARDIS that lands in Scotland would be a genuine new start. While we wait for 6 November, our Doctor Who watch guide has every era ready to stream.

The Mandalorian and Grogu gets an official behind-the-scenes art book on 3 November

• New development: Abrams Books will publish The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu on 3 November, a 256-page full-colour hardcover priced at $50 in the US
• Who wrote it: Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak, who also wrote Abrams’ art books for Andor, both seasons of The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker. Doug Chiang, Lucasfilm’s executive design director, writes the foreword
• Inside: Concept art, sketches and interviews with key cast, crew and creatives about the film’s characters, locations and vehicles
• UK availability: Abrams & Chronicle Books lists the same 3 November publication date in the UK; UK price not yet confirmed. The film, directed by Jon Favreau and co-written with Dave Filoni, has been streaming on Disney+ in the UK since 2 September

Szostak’s books are some of the best in Star Wars publishing, because they show the ideas that didn’t make it as well as the ones that did. After a film that, as we noted in our preview, had to turn a TV double act into a cinema event, the design story could be the most interesting part. Catch up on the rest of the saga with our Star Wars watch guide.

Bill Nighy joins Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV horror series Ascension

• New development: Bill Nighy will star opposite Caitríona Balfe in Ascension, a one-hour psychological horror thriller for Apple TV, Deadline and Variety reported on Monday. He plays Zac, a documentarian who hires Balfe’s Rose to work with him on a new project, in a series regular role
• The story: Inspired by Adam Nevill’s novel Last Days, it follows Rose, a documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother who starts a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult called the Church of Ascension, finds unexpected refuge in its teachings, and then discovers something far more insidious beneath
• Behind the camera: Natalie Erika James and Christian White, the team behind Relic, are co-showrunners, with James as lead director. They write the series with Alfonso and Carlos Cuarón, and all four are executive producers
• UK availability: Coming to Apple TV, which is available in the UK. Apple ordered the series in August. UK date not yet confirmed

Nevill is one of Britain’s best horror novelists, and Last Days, with its documentary maker digging into a cult, is a perfect fit for television. Nighy can make a single line sound kindly and sinister at once, so a documentarian who brings Rose into this story is great casting. He is also due to guest star in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 2.

Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki casts his first Hollywood film, Grandgear

• New development: Sam Nivola (The White Lotus) and Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon, The Last of Us) are set to lead Grandgear, with Paul Giamatti in talks to join, Deadline reported on Monday. Empire also reported the casting
• The film: Yamazaki directs from his own original screenplay for Sony Pictures, his first English-language feature. J.J. Abrams and Glen Zipper produce for Bad Robot. The plot is under wraps, though Empire says test footage shown by Sony at CinemaCon this year suggested a giant robot film
• UK availability: Filming is expected to start in 2027. Sony has pencilled in an early 2028 release. UK date not yet confirmed

Yamazaki has earned a big Hollywood film. Godzilla Minus One won him the Oscar for visual effects, and its sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero, opens in UK IMAX cinemas next Tuesday, 3 November, and wider from 6 November. Read our Godzilla Minus Zero preview before you go.

Psychological horror game MADiSON is being turned into a cinema film

• New development: Story Kitchen, the Los Angeles company behind the Sonic the Hedgehog films and the Tomb Raider series in development, has signed a deal with Argentinian developer Bloodious Games to develop a feature film set in the world of the 2022 first-person horror game, Variety reported. Bloodious confirmed the partnership on Monday
• The game: Players take the part of Luca, who uses a cursed instant camera to solve puzzles while a demon forces him to continue a gruesome ritual started decades earlier
• What they said: “Our job is to carry that physical experience into a theater without losing what makes it Bloodious’s world,” said Story Kitchen co-founders Dmitri Johnson and Mike Goldberg. Creator Alexis Di Stefano said the camera, the house, the Maxwell family and the entities behind it all “aren’t just set dressing; they’re the franchise”
• UK availability: Story Kitchen is aiming for a cinema release, but no distributor, director, cast or date is attached. UK date not yet confirmed

MADiSON builds its scares around waiting for a photo to develop, which is a horror idea that could work brilliantly on a cinema screen. The danger with game adaptations is losing what made the game frightening, so it is good to hear its creator talking about the house and the camera as the heart of it.

Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer leads body horror film Devour

• New development: Tricia Helfer will lead Devour, an erotic body horror film written and directed by Erica Orofino, The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Monday
• The story: Helfer plays Luisa, a former professional figure skater with compulsions she can’t control, who becomes dangerously fixated on her daughter’s friend Karla, played by Georgia Bradner (Resident Alien). The synopsis says the attraction turns into an obsession and “a self-destructive unravelling of Luisa’s life in increasingly terrifying and transgressive ways.” Elizabeth Adams plays her daughter, Elia
• What she said: “I loved how dark and psychological the story was. Erica wasn’t afraid to go there, and that’s what made me want to be part of it,” Helfer said
• UK availability: Produced by Canada’s Wildling Pictures, with Blue Finch Films handling worldwide sales outside Canada. No release date has been given. UK date not yet confirmed

Helfer’s Number Six was one of the great science fiction performances of the 2000s, a role built on seduction and menace, so it is a treat to see her heading into dark, adult genre territory again.

Writer’s block turns deadly in horror The Block, now wrapped with Jackie Earle Haley

• New development: Craig Singer’s horror film The Block has finished shooting and released a first look, Deadline reported on Monday
• The story: Tony winner Jack Falahee (Death of a Salesman, How to Get Away with Murder) plays Mitch James, a horror writer at the top of his career whose writer’s block and an obsession with a fan-turned-girlfriend, played by Saphira Moran, turn deadly
• The cast: Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Thomas G. Waites (The Thing), Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier), Chris Noth and Elias Koteas also star
• UK availability: Now in post-production, with no premiere date yet. UK date not yet confirmed

Singer says the film “isn’t about jump scares; it’s a philosophic fable for our times”, tying the story to the pressure on artists in an AI-driven creative world. A horror writer devouring himself for one more idea is an old nightmare, but it feels very current.

Which company would you trust with the TARDIS: Hat Trick Mercurio, World Productions or STV Studios? Tell us below.

Back tonight at 6pm with the Evening News.