Doctor Who: Why Matt Smith's rumoured return is just wishful thinking

The rumours have been heating up as to who will replace current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, after hints he will be bowing out at the end of next year

The Doctor Who fandom has had quite the shakeup of late.

In the quiet stretches before season 10 finally makes its debut in 2017, came a sudden flurry of quite surprising rumours. Would Peter Capaldi's Time Lord be regenerating back into the Eleventh Doctor himself, Matt Smith?

Certainly, the actor had found a great deal of support during his time on Doctor Who, and Steven Moffat had previously expressed that Smith still holds a great deal of fondness for the character; revealing that he's "quite open about how much he misses it, and how much he wishes he hadn't left."

The rumours, however, all come down to one report by The Mirror; taking its basis from an interview in which Smith himself confessed, "They will ask me back one day, won't they?"

Does that mean he will? Certainly not, as it's absolute standard for an actor to ensure their continuing support for past projects by stating their openness to a future return. Indeed, just because Daniel Radcliffe has expressed an enthusiasm for one day returning as an adult Harry Potter, doesn't mean that its concrete chances of coming to fruition have in any way increased.

Indeed, Smith's post-Doctor Who career has certainly been plentiful enough to rule out any return in the near future; not when he's busied himself starring in stateside projects such as Ryan Gosling's Lost River, Terminator Genisys, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

That's not to say it's entirely impossible that Smith could return to the role in the future, especially in a manner similar to David Tennant's guest appearance on the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor; merely that's there no current evidence in place to suggest he'd be taking over from Capaldi when he bows out of the role, which has been hinted to be at the end of next year.

One Doctor Who actor looking likely to return, however, is Jenna Coleman, as teased by Capaldi himself; though in what capacity is entirely unclear.