'Only Murders in the Building' Season 6 Adds 'Doctor Who' Icons to Cast

Doctor Who is currently on an indefinite hiatus after the BBC announced that it was putting the iconic sci-fi franchise out to competitive tender “as part of securing the next phase of the show for future generations,” meaning independent production companies are being invited to pitch and bid for the rights to reinvent the series from the ground up, opening the door to a fresh creative team, a new showrunner, and a potentially longer gap before the next full season reaches our screens. Fans looking to fill the void in the interim might be pleased to learn that two former Time Lords are set to return to television in the near future.

David Tennant, who famously headlined Doctor Who as the Tenth Doctor and later returned as the Fourteenth Doctor, has joined the growing cast of Only Murders in the Building Season 6, alongside Jodie Whittaker, who is globally recognized for becoming the first female incarnation of the Time Lord, leading the show as the Thirteenth Doctor. They’re both stepping out of the TARDIS for a very different kind of adventure as Hulu’s Emmy-winning murder mystery shifts its setting from New York City to London for the first time.

The cast of Only Murders in the Building Season 6 features the return of the central crime-solving trio – Steve Martin’s Charles-Haden Savage, Martin Short’s Oliver Putnam, and Selena Gomez’s Mabel Mora – as well as a massive roster of high-profile British and Irish talent to coincide with the star-studded crime caper’s move across the pond. Other newly announced stars include Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter), Richard Ayoade (The Phoenician Scheme), Adrian Lukis (The Crown), and Kathryn Hunter (Andor).

They join recurring newcomers Jennifer Saunders, Sean Teale, Simone Ashley, Amar Chadha-Patel, Rhea Norwood, Matthew Beard, Sharon Horgan, Martin Freeman, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Jamie Demetriou, Anjana Vasan, Jane Horrocks, Derek Jacobi, and Lesley Nicol, in addition to returning favorites Michael Cyril Creighton and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, reprising their respective roles as Howard Morris and Detective Donna Williams, as Charles, Oliver, and Mabel investigate the murder of podcast rival Cinda Canning (Tina Fey).

Character details and plot specifics for the new additions remain heavily under wraps while the season is actively in production in the UK. However, Only Murders in the Building Season 6 is expected to directly follow the events of the Season 5 finale, which solved the murder of Arconia’s doorman, Lester, but ended on a shocking cliffhanger: the murder of Cinda Canning. Prior to her death on the sidewalk outside the Arconia, Cinda had been overseas investigating a crime involving a woman accused of killing a British royal descendant – setting up the detour to London to unpack the interconnected web of mysteries.

Martin Short as Oliver Putnam, Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage and Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora in Only Murders in the Building Season 5

Hulu has not yet announced an official premiere date for Only Murders in the Building Season 6, but it is highly expected to return in late 2026, adhering to the show’s strict annual release schedule that it has maintained ever since its premiere in 2021. It will almost certainly be back on our screens before Doctor Who, which is currently in a major period of limbo, giving fans an opportunity to catch up with two of the franchise’s most famous Time Lords in an entirely different setting to their sci-fi shenanigans – one that will likely see them swapping their sonic screwdrivers for microphones and magnifying glasses (or even murder weapons)!