No More Doctor Who For Maisie Williams

Jill Pantozzi | February 29th, 2016

Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams has gone on record to say she won’t be returning to BBC’s Doctor Who.

You may recall, since Steven Moffat announced his departure from the show we learned there would only be a Christmas Special in 2016 with his last series airing in 2017, so it’s not like we’re going to get any more Doctor Who for a while anyway.

That said, Williams spoke with BANG Showbiz and while there’s no direct link to their report (or video?), NME.com has the actor saying:

I’m not going to be working on Doctor Who again. Everyone’s hyping about it, which is very exciting, but I guess that’s more of a publicity thing. But no, I’m not going to return, I have a lot of other really exciting projects lined up instead.

To be sure, most actors aren’t able to speak about their returns for secrecy sake but it almost sounds to me as if the Williams doesn’t actually want to come back. I could be reading too much into it, I can’t hear her tone and it really isn’t many words, but it sounds as if she’s totally done with Who and happier with other projects.

Broadchurch’s Chris Chibnall will be taking over showrunner duties after Moffat and Jenna Coleman has departed the show as well. Though between the end of her character arc which collided with Williams’ character Ashildr/Me, and the Who spinoff Class, perhaps we could see one or both of them again in the next few years. Williams has previously said she hopes to “never have to play a character that is only there to benefit a male lead” and something involving Clara/Ashildr would certainly fit the bill.

All that said, I never thought we’d get Paul McGann back as the Doctor. You really never know what will happen on Doctor Who.

What are your thoughts? Would you like to see Ashildr return or do you think the open-ended adventure should stay that way?

(via Comic Book Resources)