Doctor Who returns in April with an evil new cartoon villain

Ncuti Gatwa’s version of the Doctor will be back pretty soon. Disney Plus and the BBC announced that the next season of Doctor Who will start streaming on April 12th, with new episodes dropping weekly. The season will span eight episodes total. Perhaps more interesting than the date, though, is a pair of new characters that will be joining the cast.

First up is Belinda Chandra (played by Andor’s Varada Sethu), who will be a new companion for the Doctor. (That said, the official announcement does that that Millie Gibson will be returning as Ruby Sunday.) According to the plot synopsis, the new season follows the Doctor on “an epic quest to get her back to Earth. But a mysterious force is stopping their return and the time-traveling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies, and wider terrors than ever before.”

Those wider terrors, it seems, include a cartoon character ripped out of an evil version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Alan Cumming will play Mr Ring-a-Ding, who is described as:

a happy, funny, singalong cartoon, who lives in Sunny Town with his friend Sunshine Sally. However, in 1952, after years of repeats in cinemas across the land, Mr Ring-a-Ding suddenly looks beyond the screen and sees the real world outside — and the consequences are terrifying.

Here are the two new additions:

This will be Gatwa’s second season in the role, after taking over for Jodie Whittaker. A spinoff series for the show, called The War Between The Land And The Sea, is also in the works.

The new season of Doctor Who will be coming at a particularly busy time for streaming TV, with the next season of Andor hitting Disney Plus on April 22nd, and The Last of Us returning for season 2 on HBO on April 13th.