Doctor Who boss: Whoever plays the next Doctor must be “limitless”

The upcoming thirteenth season of Doctor Who is a big one for the series, because it’ll be the last for Jodie Whittaker in the main role. Just the other week, the official Doctor Who Twitter announced that she and castmate Mandip Gill (Yaz) had finished filming:

Now, I’m actually not sure if they just finished filming the thirteenth season or if they’re also done with the special episodes to follow. It’s in those episodes where we’ll learn the all-important identity of the next actor who will play the Doctor.

It seems like Doctor Who fans start talking about who will be the next Doctor the second a new one is announced. Russell D. Davies, who will return as showrunner for season 14, sounds like he’s heard enough people asking him who will replace Whittaker. “Oh, stop it, what nonsense!” he told Attitude. “I’m not joining any speculation about that. My Doctor Who is way off. It’s the 60th anniversary, which is November 2023! This is all too soon… I can’t.”

That said, Davies does have some ideas for the kind of actor who should play the next Doctor.

“They’ve got to be limitless. In a single word, they’ve got to be limitless. They’ve got to be capable of doing anything.”

Well, that narrows it down.

David Tennant is open to returning to Doctor Who

Maybe instead of finding a new limitless person, they could get an actor who’s already proven themselves? If Russell D. Davies is returning as showrunner after years away, why not David Tennant back in the lead role as the Doctor?

That’s probably not gonna happen, but Tennant didn’t foreclose the possibility of returning to the show when Digital Spy asked him about it. “It all depends,” he said. “The moment you say yes to Doctor Who, even before you’ve done an episode, you’re being asked whether you’d go back after you finish. I don’t know if this happens to James Bonds. I don’t know if Pierce Brosnan gets asked if he’d go back to James Bond.”

"Because there’s that element of fantasy, anything is ultimately possible. You should never say never to anything. I think that way madness lies."

But again, we get ahead of ourselves. The thirteenth season of Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker premieres on October 31.

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h/t Radio Times