Why Doctor Who Season 15’s Belinda Chandra Looks Like Season 14’s Mundy Flynn

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 15, episode 1, “The Robot Revolution.”Varada Sethu plays both Mundy Flynn and Belinda Chandra in the Doctor Who universe, and the actress’ dual casting has an in-universe explanation that goes deeper than similar scenarios that have happened within the show’s canon. After making her debut in 2024’s “Boom” as part of the Doctor Who season 14 cast, Sethu returns in Doctor Who season 15, episode 1, “The Robot Revolution,” to replace Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday as the new companion to the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa). The season 15 premiere focuses on a new story but also explains the physical similarities between both of Sethu’s characters.

Fifteen shares the revelation near the end of Doctor Who season 15, episode 1, and it’s an explanation that’s been used before within the show’s lore. That being said, despite the many Doctor Who actors who have played more than one role, Belinda’s debut comes loaded with a far more mysterious edge. Showrunner Russell T. Davies has made a far more concerted effort to connect Sethu’s Doctor Who roles, and allowed it to inform the story far more than is typical of situations like these.

Doctor Who Season 15 Confirms Mundy Flynn Is A Future Descendant Of Belinda Chandra

Fifteen tells Belinda about his meeting with Mundy in “The Robot Revolution”

Several theories about the Mundy/Belinda connection were debunked in “The Robot Revolution.” Sethu’s Doctor Who season 14 character is part of the same bloodline as her season 15 persona. Of course, with Fifteen encountering Mundy in the 51st century, they’re only very distant relatives. If the Doctor had never been a part of either of their lives, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Belinda would never have known about Mundy. With 3,000 years separating both women and little more information about their family tree, it’s not possible to tell exactly what their relationship to one another would be.

Doctor Who has used this explanation before with other shared-actor characters, and I’m sure Sethu’s situation won’t be the last time it occurs either. It’s a nice and easy way to account for two characters having the same face, although perhaps also a little too convenient. What’s different this time around is that while previous dual-castings don’t tend to happen intentionally, Sethu’s debut as Mundy Flynn feels far more like the planting of a purposeful narrative seed that eventually led to Belinda mysteriously entering the fray. I say this because Davies is drawing far more attention to it than usual.

The Doctor Believes That Meeting Both Belinda & Mundy Isn’t A Coincidence

Fifteen believes something cosmic brought him into Belinda’s company after Mundy

Other Doctors have noticed two people from vastly different periods of human history who look identical, but they’ve also largely shrugged it off as an interesting or amusing diversion. For example, Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor meets Eve Myles’ Gwyneth in Doctor Who season 1, episode 3, “The Unquiet Dead,” and Ten (David Tennant) references but doesn’t place any real importance on how much Myles’ Gwen Cooper looks like her 19th-century counterpart and ancestor when he meets the Torchwood team in Doctor Who season 4. However, Fifteen clearly feels differently about Belinda and Mundy.

In “The Robot Revolution,” Gatwa’s Doctor is visibly excited about the prospect of investigating the reason why his new companion looks so very much like an Anglican Marine he met on the surface of a distant planet thousands of years into the future. The amount of time that has passed makes it very unlikely that Mundy would look anything like Belinda, despite the distant familial connection. The Doctor believes the universe is drawing Belinda and him together, and his encounter with Mundy in Doctor Who season 14 was just one step in that journey.