Matt Smith debuted as the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who back in 2010, when the long-running sci-fi show was near the height of its modern popularity and influence. He stuck around for three years, the standard time for an actor to stick with the role, before he moved onto other projects. While the Doctor has continued regenerating into new actors, Smith has gone on to play high-profile roles in shows like The Crown and House of the Dragon...and also appear in movies like Morbius, but we can probably ignore that.
Anyway, it's been a while since Smith was piloting the TARDIS, but he's always spoken well of the show and the people he worked with. During his tenure, Steven Moffat was serving as showrunner on Doctor Who. Per Radio Times, Moffat appeared on an episode of the Doctor Who documentary series Doctor Who: Unleashed, where he looked back on the show that was. "Today, as I sit here, is the 15th anniversary of when the 11th Doctor fell to Earth and ate fish custard," he told an audience.
Moffat is still in contact with Smith, who apparently misses playing the famous Time Lord. "I WhatsApp'd Matt this morning saying it was 15 years, and he said, 'I wish I was on that set now,'" Moffat said. "See? You see, Matt? Don't leave."
Smith came back a couple times after his official exit to again play the Eleventh Doctor, although not too much time had passed since his departure. I'm sure fans would be thrilled to see him again. And it's not impossible; in fact, Doctor Who seems all about nostalgia lately. David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor, returned for a trio of episodes in 2022. And just a couple of weeks back, the latest Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billie Piper, who played the Tenth Doctor's companion Rose way back when the show was rebooted in 2005.
If anything, the show is struggling to form a new identity at the moment. It might even go on an extended hiatus now that the co-production deal between Disney and the BBC seems to be over, although we've also heard it could just go back to being hosted on the BBC like it used to be. Assuming the show actually does continue rather than go into hibernation for a while, I wouldn't be shocked to see Matt Smith pop up sooner or later. But for now, he's working on the third season of House of the Dragon, which is due out on HBO and HBO Max sometime next year.
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