Millie Gibson has been cast as Ruby Sunday, companion to Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa starring as the Fifteenth Doctor from season 14. The BBC has confirmed he will be ed by Millie Gibson as his new companion, Ruby Sunday.
Born in 2004, Millie Gibson is best known for playing the part of Kelly in the popular British soap Coronation Street; she's won popular and critical acclaim for the role, awarded Best Young Actor at the British Soap Awards in 2022. The casting decision means returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies is once again demonstrating his ambition for the show, choosing an actress who's already earning recognition for her skill. Gibson also breaks a Doctor Who record, as the youngest companion to date.
Millie Gibson Is The Youngest Doctor Who Companion
Production of Doctor Who season 14 will begin in December 2022, with Millie Gibson aged just 18. This officially makes Gibson the youngest companion to date, smashing the record held by classic series actor Matthew Waterhouse; he was 19 when he began playing the part of Adric, a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. This casting choice is certainly no coincidence; Russell T. Davies has always tended to use companions as an audience surrogate, so Ruby Sunday points to the demographic Davies is attempting to reach. Recent seasons of Doctor Who have felt as though they were aimed at hardcore Doctor Who fans, with the Centenary Special "The Power of the Doctor" even featuring returning companions from the 1980s. Davies is clearly taking a very different approach, trying to bring in new, young viewers.
Millie Gibson Shows Doctor Who Is Still A British TV Series
International distribution of Doctor Who is moving to Disney+, and some Whovians had grown concerned this would mean the show would lose its distinctively British edge. The casting of Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday is reassuring, therefore, in that she is an actress who - until now - has only really gained recognition in the U.K. Coronation Street is one of the biggest shows in the U.K., meaning she will feel like a prestigious choice to many British viewers, but international audiences will be introduced to Gibson with Doctor Who. This feels almost like a promise from Russell T. Davies and the BBC itself that Doctor Who is still quintessentially British, even with Disney+ in the mix.
The announcement was perfectly timed, coinciding with the annual Children In Need campaign and occurring just a few weeks before filming of season 14 begins - when Gibson would have inevitably been spotted. Little is known about Gibson's new role as a companion; she wouldn't even confirm how the character's surname was spelled when speaking on Children In Need, with that detail only revealed in an official BBC press release published later. No doubt more will soon be learned when Doctor Who begins production again.
