During the Trans Pride in London, Finney revealed the pertinent news to thousands of people, addressing Boris Johnson in particular. “How many of you have watched ‘Doctor Who’? Yes, because on that show my character is trans. So, Boris, I hope you see ‘Heartstopper’, I hope you see ‘Doctor Who’ because I exist and I know you know I exist,” it sounded. She ended with a clear message: “We all exist, and we’re not going anywhere!”
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Finney shared a video of the moment on Twitter.
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Rose Tyler, the companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, was first played by Billie Piper. The new actress looks distinctly different, but that shouldn’t come as too much of a shock to ‘Doctor Who’ fans. The Doctor also changes shape regularly through reincarnation. The character Rose was originally not a trans woman, but that is now the case according to Finney.
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Yasmin Finney will be seen in the new season of ‘Doctor Who’ starting this fall, along with David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Ncuti Gatwa, known for the Netflix series ‘Sex Education’. The latter joins the cast as the first black Doctor.
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So is this the first transgender character in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe? Oh, no! In April of this year, ‘Doctor Who’ released an official podcast series that producer and director Ella Watts described in a tweet as “very gay” and “very trans”. One of the main characters, Cleo, is trans and also struggles with issues related to her trans identity throughout the story. The character is played by transgender actress, Charlie Craggs. Also in the television series, character Jack Harkness already spoke about a trans colleague of his in 2006.
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Yasmin Finney is also not the first transgender actress to get a role in the television series. In 2015, a trans person joined the cast of ‘Doctor Who’ for the first time: actress and comedian Bethany Black. However, her character was not trans.
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