Arthur Darvill Talks “Doctor Who”, “Broadchurch” At Wizard World Las Vegas

Article and photos by Suzanne Philips

Popular British actor Arthur Darvill of “Doctor Who” and “Broadchurch” attended the 2015 Wizard World Comic Con at the Las Vegas Convention Center this weekend, to the delight of hundreds of fans of the popular British shows.

Arthur Darvill was quite funny and charming throughout the 45 minute panel and shared numerous stories from his childhood and drama school. Taking questions from the audience, Darvill thrilled fans describing his time on numerous television shows and theatre productions.

Fans of course had loads of questions for Darvill about his time on “Doctor Who”, playing opposite Matt Smith’s doctor.  Steven Moffatt, who produces the show, told Darvill that he always had the character of Rory planned out but Darvill says “no I don’t think he did”. At the beginning of the show, he had no idea what the character would be like.  When asked about his favorite episode of “Doctor Who”, Darvill said he would probably choose “The Angels Take Manhattan”.  The show was filmed in Central Park and a huge number of fans came out to watch the filming. Darvill says that the NY Police Department was not prepared for just how many fans would come out for the filming and were a bit nervous about the huge numbers.  Darvill says the “Doctor Who” fans were so great because they wanted the show to be good just as much as the production team.  When it came time to film the fans would become silent and just “grouped up like penguins and watched without saying a word”.  He said that was one of the best filming experiences because of the fans’ support.

Darvill went on to say that he never thought he would do television but now that he has been doing it for a bit, he really loves it.  He says that he thinks “The Walking Dead” is a great show and one of his personal favorites.  He was also able to confirm that there will be a season three for “Broadchurch”, but doesn’t know at this point what it will be about or if his character will be in it.

Television host and journalist Aaron Sagers moderated the panel and was even able to get Darvill to talk a bit about his upcoming show “Legends of Tomorrow”, which is a spin-off of the popular CW shows “The Flash” and “Arrow”.  Little information has come out about this project as the production is being kept under wraps. Darvill plays Rip Hunter who is a roguish time traveller who was described to him as “kind of like Indiana Jones”, which Darvill says immediately made him want to do the part as he has always wanted to be Indiana Jones.  He has read a lot of comic books to prep for the part and joked about what a hard job that was.  At this point he doesn’t know exactly where the character will go in the series but what he has seen looks promising so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvzgA0D0hiY

Fans were definitely not disappointed in this panel or Darvill’s answers to their numerous questions.