After much anticipation, the 13th Doctor has been announced.
On Sunday, the official “Doctor Who” Twitter account shared a video that revealed actress Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, a time-traveling adventurer in one of the most popular sci-fi series currently on television. The BBC reports that she will make her debut on the show around Christmastime.
Fans had been eagerly anticipating the news since the show revealed Friday that the announcement would come sometime after the men’s singles final at the Wimbledon Championship.
Though names like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kris Marshall and Natalie Dormer were being thrown around as possibilities, it’s Whittaker who will be replacing Peter Capaldi as the Doctor in the upcoming series, to be shown on BBC One and BBC America.
Whittaker is the first female Doctor in the show’s history and will play the title role in the series’ current iteration that began in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the lead.
“It’s more than an honour to play the Doctor,” Whittaker told the BBC. “It means remembering everyone I used to be, while stepping forward to embrace everything the Doctor stands for: hope. I can’t wait.”
The sci-fi series has been shaking up its conventions lately. Earlier this year, actress Pearl Mackie was introduced as Bill, the series’ first openly gay companion.