Doctor Who has unveiled the first photos of Jinkx Monsoon in character after landing a “major” role in the show’s upcoming season.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race winner – who was crowned the Queen of All Queens last year – revealed earlier this week that she was in Cardiff for “meetings and costume fittings” about her forthcoming stint in Doctor Who, in which she’ll be playing a mysterious new adversary of The Doctor.
On Wednesday evening, the BBC released exciting new snaps of Jinkx in character, as well as a teaser video from set in which she was seen indulging her villainous side.
Doctor Who and Drag Race fans alike were quick to voice their excitement after seeing the first snaps of Jinkx in character:
And it didn’t take long for people to start speculating about Jinkx’s character, particularly given what we already know about Neil Patrick Harris’ upcoming role in the show:
Meanwhile, others couldn’t help feeling they’d seen the costume somewhere before:
Jinkx initially rose to fame as a contestant on the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, returning to the franchise last year to compete in the ultimate All Stars series against fellow her fellow winners.
Since triumphing in All Stars 7, she’s been treading the boards on Broadway as Mama Morton in the hit show Chicago.
Speaking to PRIDE, Jinkx said of her latest venture: “It’s a dream come true. I’ve had a lot of dreams come true recently.”
“I’m terribly excited,” she added. “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.”
Doctor Who returns in November 2023 with three special episodes with former star David Tennant reprising his role as the Time Lord to coincide with the show’s 60th anniversary.
New Time Lord Ncuti Gatwa’s first episode as the 15th Doctor will then air over the festive period, with a full series to follow in 2024.
It was previously announced that the 15th Doctor’s companion will be called Ruby Sunday and will be played by former Coronation Street star Millie Gibson.
Meanwhile, the anniversary episodes will see Catherine Tate return as companion Donna Noble, while Heartstopper star Yasmin Finney joins as Rose.