See The First Look At Jonathan Groff In Doctor Who

Jonathan Groff looks dapper in Doctor Who first images.

By Zack Zagranis | Updated

jonathan groff

Jonathan Groff looks positively dapper in a first look at the upcoming season of Doctor Who. Deadline offers up a sneak peek at the Knock at the Cabin actor’s guest appearance on the legendary British sci-fi staple. Groff appears in a Victorian-style outfit standing next to Millie Gibson, the Doctor’s new companion Ruby Sunday and the Doctor himself, played by Ncuti Gatwa.

Credit: BBC Studios/James Pardon

The three stars are posed, standing on a flight of stairs facing the camera. Jonathan Groff is standing with his hands behind his back and a small, possibly sinister smile on his face. The BBC has been tight-lipped when it comes to Groff’s appearance on the show, including whether the actor will be friend or foe to Ncuti’s recently regenerated Doctor. While Groff’s posture and expression could easily belong to a villain, there’s nothing else to confirm his character’s evil alignment.

Of course, if Jonathan Groff’s Doctor Who character is holding something sinister behind his back, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to longtime fans of the actor. Two of Groff’s most famous roles, Hamilton‘s King George and The Matrix Resurrections‘ Agent Smith, have been bad guys. However, Groff has also played his share of good guys as well including Frozen’s Kristoff and FBI agent Holden Ford in Mindhunter, so what kind of character he’s playing is anyone’s guess.

matrix 4 jonathan groff
Jonathan Groff in The Matrix Resurrections

Showrunner Russell T. Davies called getting Jonathan Groff to guest star “an incredible coup.” Groff isn’t the only big-name actor guest starring in the new season of Doctor Who. Other celebs making guest appearances include Heartstoppers, Yasmin Finney, Jinkx Monsoon of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame, and returning Whovians David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Ncuti Gatwa’s first season as the Doctor looks to be one of the most star-studded seasons in the show’s 60-year history.

The show’s newfound wealth of guest talents, like Jonathan Groff, comes from its actual newfound wealth. Doctor Who has received a major cash injection courtesy of Disney+, the series new streaming home. Disney acquired the rights to stream Doctor Who last year, albeit only outside the UK and Ireland. The streaming rights for Great Britain remain in the hands of the BBC.

Meanwhile, Johnathan Groff has plenty to keep him busy outside of the world of Doctor Who. The actor starred earlier this year in Knock at the Cabin, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller. Groff is currently working on a project titled Molly and the Moon, written and directed by How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. The project also stars Kristen Bell and marks the first time the two stars have shared a project since 2019’s Frozen II.

Molly and the Moon is a musical based on Craig Thomas and his wife’s first pregnancy and revolves around a child in the womb who goes on a journey to find the source of a soothing lullaby seemingly coming from the moon. Jonathan Groff and Kristen Bell play Baby Molly’s parents. Groff and Bell were chosen for their singing ability, as displayed in both Frozen movies.

IMDb lists the film as currently in pre-production. The new season of Doctor Who is expected sometime later this year