A Hollywood studio reportedly wants Doctor Who, and David Tennant back in the TARDIS
Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment, the studio behind Leverage and The Librarians, is reportedly in talks with the BBC about a new Doctor Who, per The Times. Devlin apparently thinks bringing back David Tennant could revive the show. There’s a catch in the timing.
A Hollywood studio has thrown its hat toward Doctor Who, and it comes with a familiar name attached: David Tennant.
Electric Entertainment, the Los Angeles studio run by writer-producer-director Dean Devlin, is reportedly in talks with the BBC about making a new Doctor Who series, according to The Times. Devlin, who produced and co-wrote Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla, and whose studio makes TV like Leverage and The Librarians, has publicly signaled his interest, and reportedly believes reinstating Tennant as the Doctor could help revive the show.
If that idea sounds familiar, it should. Tennant has come back before.
The Tennant angle
Bringing back a beloved former Doctor to steady the ship isn’t a new move.
Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor and briefly the Fourteenth, returned for both the show’s 50th and 60th anniversary specials, so the idea of him stepping back in has precedent and a built-in fanbase. There’s also a working relationship here: Tennant starred as the villain in Electric Entertainment’s 2018 thriller Bad Samaritan, so Devlin and Tennant already know each other.
The pitch, essentially, is stability through nostalgia, hand the TARDIS to a Doctor fans already love while the show finds its footing again. Whether Tennant would actually sign on for a full run, rather than another one-off, is a separate and much bigger question that nobody’s answered.
The catch in the timing
Here’s where the report gets complicated, and it’s worth being careful about.
The BBC hasn’t yet posted its Doctor Who Invitation to Tender, the formal document that opens the bidding for production companies to pitch. The broadcaster announced in June it intended to put the show out to tender sometime this year, with details “in due course,” but that process hasn’t started. A single production company reportedly being in talks before that tender opens would be procedurally odd, and, as CultBox noted, potentially at odds with the BBC’s own rules about fair, open bidding.
So the honest status is: a Hollywood studio is interested and has made that interest known, but “in talks with the BBC” may be running ahead of where the official process actually is. Interest is real. A deal is not close.
Where Doctor Who stands
The show needs some kind of path forward, which is why any interest gets attention.
Doctor Who has been in an uncertain patch since Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf stepped back, with the Christmas special scrapped and the series’ next chapter genuinely up in the air. Into that vacuum, a Hollywood studio with genre credits and a plan, even a nostalgia-driven one, is going to draw notice from a fanbase anxious about what comes next.
It’s early, and reported interest is a long way from a greenlit series with Tennant back in the coat. But it’s a sign that Doctor Who still has real commercial pull, enough that an American studio wants in, even before the BBC has formally opened the door. Whether that door opens to Devlin, or to someone else once the tender actually goes out, is the thing to watch. For now, the Doctor’s future is a rumor with a very recognizable face attached.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
The Times (via CultBox) (August 2026), verified for Electric Entertainment reportedly being in talks with the BBC, Devlin’s interest, the belief that reinstating David Tennant could revive the show, and Tennant reportedly being approached by a company bidding for the show
CultBox, Andrea Laford (August 10, 2026), verified for Devlin’s Facebook-reel interest, Electric Entertainment’s credits (Leverage, The Ark, The Librarians), Devlin’s film background, the Bad Samaritan connection, and the caveat about the BBC not yet posting its Invitation to Tender
BBC announcement (June 10, 2026), verified for the intention to post the Doctor Who ITT “this year,” the details-in-due-course framing, and the Russell T Davies/Bad Wolf withdrawal and scrapped Christmas special context