Last week, Steven Moffat confirmed the longstanding rumors of his exit from Doctor Who after the upcoming tenth season. Moffat contributed to the 2005 revival of Doctor Who in its first four seasons before taking over as showrunner in the fifth season.
Matt Smith was the Eleventh Doctor whose entire tenure came during Moffat’s run. During the PR tour for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Anglophile Channel got Smith to share his thoughts about Moffat’s departure.
“I’m sad he’s leaving Doctor Who,” said Smith. “He’s done so much for it and so much for me. He pretty much is Doctor Who; but the show will always endure and there’s a wonderful writer coming in and as always, it’s about regeneration and reinvention of things…But he has done so much for the show and I feel very privileged that I got to work with, what I think, is the greatest writer… but I’m excited to see what he does next.”
Related: Doctor Who Is Skipping 2016 and Changing Showrunners
The new Doctor Who showrunner will be Chris Chibnall, the co-creator of Torchwood. Former Doctor Who star John Barrowman was connected to both Moffat and Chibnall, because Moffat created Barrowman’s Who character Captain Jack Harkness, who went on to headline the Torchwood series. ComicBook.com reported on Barrowman’s reaction to the news.
“Good luck to Steve [Moffat] and Chris Chibnall,” related Barrowman during his appearance at last weekend’s Heroes and Villains Fan Fest. “Apparently he is coming back in? Which is really ironic because before Christmas I wrote to Chris Chibnall and said ‘I would love for you to be the showrunner on this new script that I have written and might be picked up.’ And he didn’t reply — now I know why! But yeah, Chris Chibnall, I love Chris. Chris wrote a lot for Captain Jack, so, who knows. But, I have to say, I’m an Arrow man at the moment.”
Intriguingly, Barrowman’s script could mean his own departure from Arrow, since he expects it to get picked and he said “at the moment” in regards to his status on the show.
Doctor Who will return for a Christmas special in 2016 before Moffat’s final season begins in 2017.
