Entertainment
Jodie Whittaker gives first interview since Doctor Who exit rumours but doesn’t address her possible departure
Jodie Whittaker has given her first interview since rumours first began surrounding her possible exit from Doctor Who, staying tight-lipped on the speculation.
Having played the Thirteenth Doctor since 2017, it has recently been speculated that Jodie, 39, is set to leave the BBC sci-fi series after the 2022 specials.
Several names have been thrown in the mix as possible contenders to replace Jodie as the Fourteenth Doctor, including Richard Ayoade, Michaela Coel and Olly Alexander.
Nonetheless, Whovians haven’t heard any official confirmation as of yet, including in Jodie’s first Q&A since the rumours started.
While speaking to Doctor Who magazine with her co-star Mandip Gill, who plays the Doctor’s companion Yasmin Khan, Jodie said that she ‘got used’ to keeping secrets about Doctor Who, adding: ‘I hate spoilers.’
However, she did admit that she found it especially hard to keep her casting as the Doctor under wraps, including from her own team.
‘The hardest secret to keep was my own!’ Jodie said, explaining that there was a ‘really long’ gap between her audition for the part, being offered the role and it being formally announced.
‘I didn’t want it to leak; I didn’t have any desire for it to come out before the reveal, because I knew my life was going to change and I was in no rush for that to happen until I was prepared for it,’ she stated.
‘But professionally, I was the only person in my team that knew I’d been cast.’
Jodie recalled how before other members of her team new she’d been given the part, she’d be sent auditions and have to find a way to turn them down.
‘I very nearly said ‘I’ve been cast!” I nearly said that a hundred times,’ she recollected.
‘But I didn’t. It was hard, but it was worth it. And it was practice for keeping all the series’ other secrets.’
Jodie was dealt a significant snub ahead of her rumoured exit, when it emerged that she wasn’t going to appear on the front cover of the Doctor Who annual for 2022.
Having been featured on the cover for the last three years, the 2022 issue will mark the first time the Doctor has not starred on the front in the publication’s nearly 60-year history.
Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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