Hayley Atwell has announced that she’d love to play Doctor Who during a Q&A, which has immediately provoked fans to urge the show’s producers to consider her for the part.
Atwell made this admission on Twitter as she was peppered with questions by her fans. The 33-year-old actress was originally asked whether she’d simply like to be on the hugely popular BBC sci-fi series. But then Atwell decided to go one better:
@ohmyjlc I’d like to BE Doctor Who
— Hayley Atwell (@HayleyAtwell) August 14, 2015
Even though she referred to The Doctor as Doctor Who — a mistake that few won’t instantly forgive her for — following this declaration, fans soon started to voice their universal support for Atwell.
@hayleyatwell @alasdairstuart @lynnemthomas The Doctor is going to regenerate into a woman some day and I want it be Hayley.
— Matthew Dow Smith (@matthewdowsmith) August 17, 2015
@HayleyAtwell @ohmyjlc this needs to happen!
— Sara #LoveWins (@rainbow_tardis) August 17, 2015
@HayleyAtwell That would be awesome if it happened, you would be a fantastic Doctor & its about time we have a female Doctor
— Ricky (@_nighttrap) August 16, 2015
But what are the chances that Hayley Atwell will actually play the lead on Doctor Who? Well, it’s beginning to look more and more likely that The Doctor will one day be portrayed by a female.
Just before Peter Capaldi was cast as the Time Lord, there was a huge swell of support for Executive Producer Steven Moffat and the BBC to cast a woman in the role. Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren was the biggest advocate of such an appointment, even going as far as to say that she wanted a “gay, black, female” Time Lord.
According to Comic Book , in the Neil Gaiman-written Doctor Who episode, The Doctor’s Wife , it was teased that swapping genders during a regeneration was possible, while in Series 8 of the show, The Master reappeared as a female. Plus, in the Steven Moffat-written 1999 Comic Relief special, Doctor Who: The Curse Of Fatal Death , Joanna Lumley appeared as The Female Doctor. However, this was very much a light-hearted short that riffed on the show and isn’t part of its actual canon of work.
London-born Atwell is currently busy portraying Peggy Carter on ABC’s Agent Carter , the second season of which is due to begin filming in the next few weeks. The first season was met with relatively impressive ratings, and was a critical darling, too.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)