Doctor Who: 10 Actors Who Almost Played Different Characters
3. David Tennant
Who He Almost Played: Gabriel Sneed
Who He Actually Played: The Tenth Doctor
As with Michelle Gomez and Missy, it's borderline impossible to picture a reality where David Tennant doesn't play the Tenth Doctor, but if he'd landed this earlier role in the show, then perhaps that reality would've come to pass.
The 2005 episode The Unquiet Dead features a character called Gabriel Sneed, an elderly undertaker who gets caught up in a ghostly plot alongside the Ninth Doctor and Rose. Again, Sneed is elderly, but originally, writer Mark Gatiss scripted him to be much younger, and at this time, Tennant was thought to be a perfect fit for the role.
However, when Sneed was aged up, Tennant was thrown out of the running, which led to him playing the Tenth Doctor in the following series.
Not that actors can't have multiple roles in Doctor Who - there are many examples of this, and everybody on this list could've feasibly played the role they almost got, as well as the role they did get - but if Tennant had appeared in Series 1 as Sneed, it would undoubtedly have hurt his chances of playing the Tenth Doctor in Series 2.