'Doctor Who' Casting News: Sam Heughan As The Next Time Lord Or Could It Be A Woman?

Is "Outlander" actor Sam Heughan ready to leave his role as Jamie Fraser to become the latest Time Lord in BBC's "Doctor Who"? This was the question on many fans minds after it was announced that Peter Capaldi will be leaving the show together with showrunner Steven Moffat after its 10^th season.

It can be recalled that Heughan was recently in the news for expressing his desire to play the iconic role "one day." In fact, as early as 2015, he has been bugging his good friend Mark Gatiss, who writes for the show, to create a role for him just so he could get on board the cult classic series, reported Radio Times.

Heughan seems like a feasible choice to play the thirteenth Doctor since he is no stranger to the time traveling storyline. His current Starz series "Outlander" has taken him to different timelines. In fact, the idea for his character in the show actually came from an old episode of "Doctor Who," admitted author Diana Gabaldon who wrote the novels on which the television series is based.

As early as now, excited fans have already started creating memes of Heughan wearing all of the previous Doctors' costumes just to test if he can carry the role well, The Sun reported.

On his decision to leave the show, Capaldi, who brought to life one of the most popular versions of the Time Lord, said that he is thankful to the endless creativity of all the people working on the show and the tireless support of the fans for the long-running franchise.

For her part, former cast member Billie Piper said that it is high time for the show to consider a woman to be the next Doctor, reported BBC.

"I think it would be great [to have a female Doctor] given the spirit of the world at the moment. I think it would be timely," she said.

Executive Producer Steven Moffat, in the same article, said that he doesn't think that it would be impossible to consider a woman to play the next "Doctor Who."