In a surprise move, Steven Moffat and the BBC have declared that Jenna-Louise Coleman will be portraying the new companion for Matt Smith‘s Eleventh Doctor, beginning with the Doctor Who Christmas Special at the end of 2012.

You can watch an interview Doctor Who TV did with Coleman about the news at the bottom of this post.

Many enthusiasts and speculators had previously believed the announcement would be kept tight-lipped until before the Christmas Special this year, so the BBC news about the new companion came as a big revelation to Whovians across the world.

At the time of the announcement, Moffat said that the reason they cast Coleman in the role was because of the chemistry between her and Matt Smith: “It always seems impossible when you start casting these parts, but when we saw Matt and Jenna together we knew we had our girl.” In an interview with The Guardian, Moffat said, “There was a moment I remember when they were auditioning together “¦ and they both look frightened doing a Doctor Who scene, and it was an instant poster and I thought ‘God that’s brilliant.'”

On the latest TARDISblend podcast, Tom Cheredar and I pondered who/what the new companion may be, with ideas ranging from a male companion to an alien. Clearly, we were wrong!

Coleman has formerly been in British television shows such as Emmerdale and Waterloo Road. She has also appeared in the U.S. television series Boston Legal, and made her cinema debut in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Doctor Who Series 7 is set to premiere in Fall 2012, with 5 episodes that will lead to the “heartbreaking” farewell of companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). The series will follow with the Christmas Special showcasing Coleman’s introduction, and then wrap with the remaining 8 episodes in Spring 2013.

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[Sources: DoctorWhoTVUK | The Guardian]