Fans will still have to wait for “Doctor Who” to return for a new season, but thanks to Twitter, Whovians got an early look at new cast member Jinkx Monsoon’s costume for the upcoming season. Moonsoon, a drag star from Portland, has already found fame as the “queen of all queens,” thanks to winning Season 5 of the hit TV show, “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and winning Season 7 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.”
(New episodes of “Doctor Who” will stream on Disney Plus beginning in November. You can sign up for Disney Plus for a price starting at $9.99 per month; or you can bundle Disney Plus with Hulu and ESPN Plus for a price starting at $12.99 per month.
It was recently announced that Monsoon, who uses uses she/her/they/them pronouns, will appear in “a major role” in the new season of the long-running U.K. science-fiction series, “Doctor Who.” Russell T. Davies, who will be returning as “Doctor Who” showrunner for the new season, was quoted as saying, “In a galaxy of comets and supernovas, here comes the biggest star of all. Jinkx Monsoon is on a collision course with the TARDIS, and ‘Doctor Who’ will never be the same again.”
On social media, Monsoon said, “I’m honored, thrilled, and utterly excited to join ‘Doctor Who!’ Russell T Davies is a visionary and a brilliant writer — I can’t wait to get into the weeds with him and the crew! I hope there’s room in the TARDIS for my luggage.”
Today on social media, the “Doctor Who” Twitter account posted a brief clip in which Monsoon shows off her “Doctor Who” costume and laughs.
In a second post, the “Doctor Who” account posted two photos of Monsoon wearing the costume, which features piano key-style details, and captioned it, “Here is your first look at @JinkxMonsoon in character…as the Doctor’s most powerful enemy yet!”
In an interview with Pride, Monsoon says she in Cardiff, Wales, having meetings and costume fittings. “I’m terribly excited,” Monsoon said. “It’s not easy to encapsulate how excited I am with words. I was saying to the director yesterday, the role that I’m playing, it’s like everything I ever dreamed about doing as an actor in one character. It’s insane. It’s like all of my actor fantasies have been rolled into one character, and now I get to do it all on a show that I love, written by a prolific writer, a voice of our generation who has written so many astounding things. And this is just one example of his brilliance, Russell T. Davies. But it’s just… it’s extremely thrilling. And when I was dreaming, when I was a little boy, dreaming of growing up and being an actress, this is what I was imagining.”
Monsoon earlier won praise and drew crowds when, in her Broadway debut, she played Matron “Mama” Morton in a revival of “Chicago.” Monsoon’s show, “Jinkx Monsoon: Everything at Stake,” is scheduled to come to Portland’s Keller Auditorium on Aug. 14, 2023.
“Doctor Who” premiered in 1963, and follows the adventures of an extraterrestrial Time Lord known as the Doctor. Among the actors who have traveled the universe in the TARDIS space ship are Christopher Eccleston, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker and David Tennant, who will be returning for three special episodes in November, which celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary.
Another new actor, Ncuti Gatwa (”Sex Education”) will take on the role of the Doctor in the upcoming season.
More of our coverage:
Portland’s drag queen star Jinkx Monsoon to join ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘a major role’
— Kristi Turnquist
503-221-8227; kturnquist@oregonian.com; @Kristiturnquist
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