{"id":436848,"date":"2026-02-20T22:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436848\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:31:10","slug":"the-ideal-actor-for-doctor-whos-sixteenth-doctor-appeared-in-the-show-3-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436848\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ideal Actor For Doctor Who’s Sixteenth Doctor Appeared In The Show 3 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not exactly clear who Doctor Who<\/a>‘s current lead actor really is. The Doctor Who season 15 finale<\/a> saw Ncuti Gatwa regenerate into Billie Piper, but a plethora of different explanations could be pulled out to address Rose’s return. It’s possible that the Doctor has simply adopted a familiar face, just as the Twelfth Doctor did with Peter Capaldi, but it’s also plausible that Piper isn’t playing the Doctor at all.<\/p>\n

Is this the Bad Wolf inhabiting the Doctor’s body? Has something timey-wimey resulted in the Doctor and Rose swapping places? Is Rose’s form just a stop-gap before a new, proper incarnation of the Doctor<\/a>? It’s a case of so many questions, so little content for Doctor Who right now, but as speculation over the show’s next full-time lead increases, a familiar face enters the conversation.<\/p>\n

Mawaan Rizwan Would Be A Fantastic Sixteenth Doctor<\/p>\n

\"Mawaan
\n Mawaan Rizwan in Doctor Who<\/p>\n

2023’s Doctor Who Children in Need special, “Destination: Skaro,” featured the Doctor accidentally getting involved in the Daleks’ creation (again). On this occasion, Fourteen encountered the Kaled scientist Mr. Castavillian, played by Mawaan Rizwan.<\/p>\n

A rising star at the time, Rizwan began his career online before switching to other shows under the BBC umbrella such as Definitely Not Newsround. Rizwan then balanced a dual career as a documentary host and emerging comedian, but has more recently made strides into comedy TV with Juice and Two Weeks to Live.<\/p>\n

Particularly in Juice, Rizwan’s style is vibrant, surreal, larger-than-life, and deliberately odd. He blends the juvenile with the deadly serious, which can be seen in his career trajectory between performing stand-up and speaking on real modern-day issues.<\/p>\n

It’s a clash of styles that could serve Doctor Who well. Rizwan would bring a chaotic, alien energy to the Doctor, but still land the heavier emotional beats demanded by the universe’s favorite Time Lord. He possesses a performative kind of showmanship reminiscent of actors from Doctor Who’s past<\/a>, but also a self-aware irreverence not seen since Matt Smith.<\/p>\n

Mawaan Rizwan is the kind of talent that can’t be pinned down, just like the Doctor as a character and, indeed, Doctor Who as a franchise.<\/p>\n

When Could Doctor Who Realistically Debut A New Actor?<\/p>\n

\"The
\n The Doctor regenerating as Billie Piper in Doctor Who<\/p>\n

Doctor Who’s next release will be a 2026 Christmas special, presumably starring Billie Piper. There’s a very realistic possibility that the episode will end with Piper regenerating into Doctor Who’s next proper lead actor<\/a> ahead of the next full season, which has been confirmed (albeit without a clear timeline) by the BBC.<\/p>\n

That’s the earliest a new Doctor could debut, but viewers could have a much longer wait. It’s currently not clear whether Billie Piper might stay for a full season, or perhaps a series of specials spread over 2027. And following the conclusion of Doctor Who’s arrangement with Disney<\/a>, there are problems to solve beyond just finding a new Doctor.<\/p>\n

Still, Doctor Who has a long history of promoting actors who excel in guest roles to the top jobs, and with Mawaan Rizwan already making a strong impression, the foundations for a stint piloting the TARDIS are already in place.<\/p>\n

\"03221152_poster_w780.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 11, 2024<\/p>\n

Network<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBBC One<\/p>\n

Directors<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlex Pillai, Peter Hoar, Ben Chessell, Julie Anne Robinson, Jamie Donoughue, Amanda Brotchie, Dylan Holmes Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not exactly clear who Doctor Who‘s current lead actor really is. The Doctor Who season 15 finale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-436848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}