50 Actors Who Could Play the Next Doctor on Doctor Who

Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn on Showtime’s “The Tudors” (Photo: Showtime)

Natalie Dormer

Many fans would like to see a female Doctor take over the TARDIS following Twelve’s regeneration. And there are certainly many qualified candidates. But one of my personal favorites is actress Natalie Dormer, whose work has only been getting better and better since her breakout role in period drama The Tudors. Dormer imbued Anne Boleyn with all the sass, sex appeal, intelligence and vulnerability that you might expect from one of history’s great slighted women. And it’s exactly this sort of nuanced performance that serves as strong evidence that she’d be a fantastic Thirteen.

The Doctor must be many things – hopeful, brave, compassionate, arrogant, furious, funny and weird all at once. He literally contains multitudes, and it’s a tall order for any actor or actress to handle. But Dormer has proven again and again that she can handle playing complicated women. After The Tudors, Dormer went on to play a lawyer in Silk, a supernatural creature on the Fades, and Katiss’ loyal film director in the Hunger Games films. She even has experience taking a well-known male character and turning them into a woman. After all, her Irene Adler turned out to be a genderswapped Moriarty on Sherlock Holmes series Elementary.

Dormer recently wrapped her role as fan favorite schemer Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones, so it kind of seems like the perfect time to upgrade the actress to a leading role of her own. It’s hard to guess what her Thirteen might be like – but she would certainly be exciting.