’s 2024 holiday special has already found one of its major stars. Often providing an inter-season taste of the Time Lord, typically releases annual holiday specials. Most recently, this which aired on New Year’s Day in 2022. This year, will release a Christmas special titled “The Church on Ruby Road” on December 25.

Planning ahead for 2024, adds star Nicola Coughlan to its Christmas special cast. Speaking with , showrunner Russell T. Davies confirmed that the team is “.” Check out the full confirmation from Davies below:

“[We’ve got] Nicola Coughlan at Christmas. Not this Christmas, next Christmas.

We’re shooting Christmas 2024 now.”

Nicola Coughlan Fits a Doctor Who Casting Trend

An Irish actress, Coughlan is a fairly new face in the TV arena. Her most prominent role has been playing Penelope Featherington in , but before that she played Clare Devlin in starting in 2018. Coughlan also made a film appearance when she acted in , and is slated to be in the upcoming movie adaptation of .

Coughlan’s casting in many ways aligns with that of a soon-to-be-prominent cast member: Ncuti Gatwa. Gatwa will soon take on the central role of the Fifteenth Doctor in , after having gotten his big break in 2019 when he debuted his role as Eric Effiong in the hit Netflix show

. The actor even shares another similarity with Coughlan in that he too played a role in . Like Coughland, Gatwa’s acting history means that the casting team picked the actor from just a small sample size of roles.

Both Coughlan and Gatwa’s casting follow an overall trend among the upcoming casting. This trend has involved casting newcomers, and often younger faces in . Beyond Gatwa and Coughlan, this casting includes upcoming companion actors Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday Yasmin Finney as Rose Temple-Noble, both of whom are young and newer to TV. Hopefully, this serves as a future launching point for Coughlan and the rest of these rising stars.