10 Failed Doctor Who Movies (And Why They Didn't Happen)

6. Paramount's Michael Jackson Blockbuster

Michael Jackson Doctor Who
BBC Studios

A lot of famous actors have been tipped to play the Doctor over the years, but one of the weirdest choices was easily pop star Michael Jackson, who was Paramount Pictures' number one choice to play the character back in 1988.

Apparently, the studio's interest in Jackson was driven by the success of the Warner Bros movie Moonwalker, which was a box-office hit, and also starred Jackson.

Paramount liked the Doctor Who movie's screenplay, but they wanted a say in the casting if they were to finance the project, and the pop star was their desired pick. If Jackson declined for whatever reason, then the back-up plan - bizarrely - was to ask Bill Cosby to lead the movie. Yeah. Can't say that would have aged very well.

Ultimately though, none of these casting choices happened, because Paramount's offer was rejected by Daltenreys, a company that was heavily involved with Doctor Who's movie struggles in the late '80s and early '90s.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!