Actor Matt Smith has decided its time to regenerate and will leave Doctor Who at the end of the year.
According to a press release from BBC America, Smith will leave the show at the end of this year’s Christmas special.
Here are details from the press release:
The BBC is today announcing that Matt Smith is to leave Doctor Who after four incredible years on the hit show. Matt first stepped into the TARDIS in 2010 and will leave the role at the end of this year after starring in the unmissable 50th Anniversary in November and regenerating in the Christmas special. During his time as the Doctor, Matt has reached over 30 million unique UK viewers and his incarnation has seen the show go truly global. He was also the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA in the role. Doctor Who is BBC AMERICA’s highest-rated series and premieres as part of the channel’s Supernatural Saturday programming block.
Matt quickly won over fans to be voted Best Actor by Readers of Doctor Who Magazine for the 2010 season. He also received a nod for his first series at the National Television Awards, before winning the Most Popular Male Drama Performance award in 2012. Matt has played one of the biggest roles in TV with over 77 million fans in the UK, US and Australia alone!
Matt Smith says: “Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realize all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.
Having Steven Moffat as showrunner write such varied, funny, mind-bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career. It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.
The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!
It’s been an honor to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt.”
Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, says: “Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently. And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show, he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him – sometimes literally – his behavior was always worthy of the Doctor.
But great actors always know when it’s time for the curtain call, so this Christmas prepare for your hearts to break, as we say goodbye to number Eleven. Thank you Matt – bow ties were never cooler.
Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, because now the search begins. Somewhere out there right now – all unknowing, just going about their business – is someone who’s about to become the Doctor. A life is going to change, and Doctor Who will be born all over again! After 50 years, that’s still so exciting!”
Having starred alongside three different companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and most recently Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Matt’s Doctor has fought Daleks and Cybermen, as well as Weeping Angels in New York. Regularly heard shouting ‘run’ and ‘Geronimo’, through Matt’s Doctor fans have been introduced to a new culinary combination – fish fingers and custard!
Matt’s spectacular exit is yet to be revealed and will be kept tightly under wraps. He will return to BBC AMERICA in the unmissable 50th anniversary episode on Saturday, November 23, 2013 – TUNE IN!
Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC ONE
Am I wrong are wasn’t it just announced less than a month ago that Smith would be returning for Series 8? Wonder what happen? Shite! That is all I can say at this time because I’m too upset. Matt was my #2 most favorite Doctor in the last 50 yrs. So again, Shite!
No Sam, you are not wrong. In fact I found the very article stating that. However, there are two possibilities at play here…
1. Matt Smith, like the Doctor, always lies. Matt’s confirmation of him being in Season 8 did not come from the Beeb, rather it was on a different news source that got quoted a large number of times by other news organizations (ours included). The BBC was very quiet on the subject of Matt Smith’s role in season 8. Now we have an official press release from the BBC stating that Matt will be leaving during the Christmas Special. If I had a choice between the two, I would say that the BBC’s press release is the more accurate one.
OR…
2. Matt has been working on a big movie project that is directed by Ryan Gosling. It’s possible that after having been given a serious taste of working on a film like this that he has decided to permanently ditch the Doctor’s bow-tie and fez cap, and make the jump into movies only, hence he changed his mind about doing season 8 even after making the announcement himself that he would be in it.
Personally I’m leaning towards the second scenario. While some people I know have said that they felt Matt Smith simply lied about coming back, I find that I have difficulty accepting that because I can’t figure out any reason as to why he should lie. He gains nothing by deliberately lying about his future with Who, and it could be argued that he would lose some of his fan base by doing so. That’s why I’m going with the idea that he simply changed his mind since confirming season 8 of Doctor Who.
The average Doctor lasts 3.5 years, so this is about right. But if John Hurt is another version of the Doctor, then that means the next Doctor is our last. 13 lives you see.
On the other hand, that could be retconned, but I doubt it. I mean, just look at the age that the Doctor looks like. Each time he regenerates, he gets younger and younger, until he can no longer regnerate. So, bummer.
The “13 Lives” rule has been retconned thanks to Russell T. Davies. In the Sarah Jane Adventures series, the Doctor shows up at what was fraudulently passed off as his funeral. In that story the Doctor is talking to one of the “Scooby gang” and tells him that he can regenerate pretty much endlessly and without limit.
Since that episode there has no longer been any reference to the limited number of regenerations a Timelord possesses.
Bu I read somewhere that what he said was to be taken in jest.
In other words, he was being sarcastic.
Interesting because I read an interview with RTD where he said that he didn’t agree with the 12 regeneration rule. He didn’t like the idea that just because the line mentioning was dropped in an episode (Deadly Assassin?) it became part of the canon.
Of course what RTD was essentially no better, but he did say, in the interview that I read, that he was quite serious regarding the countless regenerations.
That’s also interesting because by that time he had already relinquished control of Doctor Who to Moffatt, but he decides to try to make a sweeping change to the Who mythology through the one property he still had control over, “The Sarah Jane Adventures.” Cheap and cheeky of him if you ask me.
Let us also not forget that the Doctor lies…so he could be lying about this.
Or we can just forget it like we did the half-human thing from the TV movie.
Not really a surprise imo…they don’t seem to stay long these days…the first season with him and Amy will always be one of my favorites.
I’d actually pay to see Hugh Laurie as The Doctor. Oh wait, I do. I have satellite. I also have great respect for John Hurt & think he’d make a marvelous Doctor, kind of a shout back to the very 1st (I guess he is the real Doctor come to think of it). But, I think Laurie has the attitude and energy we have become accustom to since Eccleston, Tennant and Smith’s performances. ?
If Mr Laurie were to become the Dr. I’d vote for the Prince George version more so than Dr House….
Just sayin