Torchwood, the fan favorite Doctor Who spinoff, has been off the air for 7 years now. But star John Barrowman still hopes that it could return somehow now that its former showrunner, Chris Chibnall, holds the top spot on the flagship BBC sci-fi series.
While speaking to Radio Times, the actor who played the immortal Captain Jack Harkness opposite both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant and on his own show, revealed that he’d attempted to get a reboot of Torchwood off the ground a while back, taking the idea to different U.S. networks – including The CW, the home of Barrowman’s other big series, Arrow.
“I was doing meetings with different production companies all around the US including the CW, and the one things out of everyone’s mouth was ‘How would we get a hold of Torchwood? To do it?’ And I thought ‘That’s an interesting question,’ and a lot of people were asking that. ‘How can we get a hold of that brand to do it, to start making it again?’
Barrowman’s quest then led him to contact Chibnall, who helmed the spinoff’s first and second seasons back in the day. While the writer/producer couldn’t follow up on the star’s request at that point, he apparently told Barrowman they’d discuss the possibility of more Torchwood at a later date.
“So I then started putting the feelers out and contacting people. And I actually wrote to Chris and I said to him, ‘Would he be interested in being a part of something like that? Or something like that, I can’t remember how the email went. He e-mailed me back, and he said ‘As you probably know, I’m in the middle of something very big at the moment, and I can’t discuss anything else.’ But he said ‘Let’s talk when things calm down a bit.’ And that was just at the beginning of his negotiations for Doctor Who.”
This sounds pretty encouraging, then, but does Barrowman think Torchwood could actually come back in the near future? Well, it’s all up to Chibs, according to the actor:
“Who knows? If anyone can do it, it’s Chris. Chris is the one who can make the decision, because it’s always the decision of the showrunner of Doctor Who. I was told that that’s the person who can decide about bringing back Torchwood. Or Captain Jack to Doctor Who.”
Torchwood first arrived in 2006, as created by then-Who showrunner Russell T. Davies. Its first two seasons were very much a mature version of its parent show but season 3, a five-part miniseries called Children of Earth completely reimagined it. The same goes for season 4, the ten-part Miracle Day, which was a co-production between the BBC and Starz. This transatlantic production was supposed to lead to more, but the season wasn’t well received by fans and floundered in the ratings.
Still, folks are always hoping for Jack to return in some form. Earlier this year, we reported on the rumor that said he was coming back for Doctor Who season 11 – though, John Barrowman soon responded and told us there was no truth to the whispers. Like the man himself says above though, maybe sometime soon?