Doctor Who showrunner addresses people upset over casting of trans actress Yasmin Finney

Later this month, David Tennnat will return to the TARDIS and once again play the Doctor on Doctor Who. He’ll be joined by Catherine Tate, who will once again be playing companion Donna Noble. And all of it is happening under the supervision of Russell T Davies, the man who revived Doctor Who for its current run back in 2005. The gang’s all back together!

But of course there will be new characters as well, including Rose, Donna’s daughter. Rose is played by Yasmin Finney, who has made a splash among audiences mainly thanks to her work on the Netflix show Heartstopper. However, Davies confirmed that they cast her in Doctor Who before that show aired. “It’s funny, in casting Yasmin there was this 15-year-old mixed-race [trans girl] – there are very few people who fit the casting and it’s like she came down from Heaven and there she was,” he told Metro and other papers.

Rose was written as a trans character from the first, a purposeful move on Davies’ part. The showrunner is making inclusion a priority. “It’s something that’s not just a Doctor Who thing for me,” he said. “It’s something I and a lot of other writers are keen to do – to be progressive, to reflect more of society.”

Trans people and trans rights have been in the news a lot over the past few years, and it’s not hard to believe that some people greeted the news about Finney’s inclusion with something less than open hearts and minds. For those people “full of absolute hate, and venom, and destruction and violence who would like to see that sort of thing wiped off the screen entirely,” Davies had a simple message: “Shame on you and good luck to you in your lonely lives.”

Inclusion is a priority of Doctor Who

Doctor Who has always been an inclusive show. Davies, who is a gay man, had a lot to do with that, since he more than anyone else is responsible for the success of the modern revival of the decades-old series. “All I can say is, I feel so honoured to be seen by Russell,” Finney told British Vogue last year. “I remember growing up idolising it…I’m happy to be the representation on a show that means a lot to so many.”

Relatedly, Doctor Who casting director Andy Pryor talked to CultBox last year about how he was trying “to cast as inclusively as possible, it’s more interesting.”

"If you can’t cast diversely on Doctor Who, what show can you do it on? It goes everywhere, on this planet and others, and you don’t want to see the same kind of people all the time. You don’t want it to be exclusively middle-class white people speaking with RP accents."

Finney, Tennant, Noble and more will all be on our screens when Doctor Who returns for a trio of 60th Anniversary specials starting November 25.

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