10 Actors Who Won't Return To Doctor Who

When Maisie Williams’ Doctor Who casting was announced, rumours were rife that she was playing a new companion. And it’s not hard to see why.

Not only was she well-established thanks to Game of Thrones, but the photos accompanying the press release added fuel to the fire, showing her in the TARDIS, in contemporary dress, looking very much at home.

As we now know, Williams ended up playing a very different sort of character. But even so, when Clara departed at the end of Series 9, it was speculated that Ashildr might replace her.

In 2016, Williams put the rumours firmly to bed, insisting that:

“I’m not going to be working on Doctor Who again. Everyone’s hyping about it, which is very exciting… but no, I’m not going to return, I have a lot of other really exciting projects lined up instead.”

Much more recently (literally as this list was being written!) Williams said that she would return to Doctor Who, and that she “would love” to work with Ncuti Gatwa. Mixed signals much?!

However, given that her original denial was pretty definitive and the whole Clara/Me ending was very divisive, it's difficult to imagine this character ever being revisited.