50 Actors Who Could Play the Next Doctor on Doctor Who

Fantasy series “Merlin” offered Alexander Vlahos his breakout role as Mordred. (Photo: BBC)

Alexander Vlahos

Alexander Vlahos is the kind of actor whose career has reached just about the perfect point to play the Doctor. His resume is relatively short, but features several impressive roles. He’s young, attractive and charming. Plus, he’s Welsh, which is something we haven’t actually done yet, as far as Time Lords go. (Doctor Who has loads of ties to Wales, and films most of its episodes there. A Welsh Doctor might be a nice tip of the hat to the region.)

Vlahos made a big splash playing Mordred in BBC fantasy series Merlin. Rather than lean in to the idea of the young druid destined to kill Arthur as a strictly “evil” character, Vlahos played him as full of conflict and contradictions. Even though we all knew Mordred’s fate, he was extremely sympathetic, even tragic, at times. And Vlahos’ portrayal had a lot to do with that, and showed off an acting range that would make him a great Doctor.

Vlahos is currently starring in period drama Versailles (which is worth a look if you haven’t seen it), but he’s a big Doctor Who fan. He told Digital Spy that he’s “really proud” of the show.

"“Does that make sense? I think it’s such a great show. There were connotations that came with it from the ’80s, of it being a joke of sorts… now it’s become this flagship show for the BBC. It’s such a moneymaker but it’s also so high quality.”"

Plus, Vlahos very much wants to play Thirteen, and is already campaigning for the job on Twitter. Seriously. He’s even tried to start a hashtag about it. (It’s #VlahosforWho, if you’re curious.)