It's A Sin star Omari Douglas 'first choice for Doctor Who'

BBC bosses ‘see It’s A Sin star Omari Douglas as first choice to replace Jodie Whittaker as Doctor Who’

By Lydia Spencer-elliott For Mailonline

Published: 01:50 GMT, 3 November 2021 | Updated: 01:51 GMT, 3 November 2021

He wowed audiences as Roscoe Babatunde in It’s A Sin at the start of this year.

And now rising star Omari Douglas is reportedly the front runner to replace Jodie Whittaker in her iconic role as Doctor Who.

An insider told The Sun: ‘Omari is the perfect candidate on so many levels, including the fact that the BBC said they’d prefer the Doctor to be played by a non-white actor.’

Doctor Who? It’s A Sin star Omari Douglas is reportedly the front runner to replace Jodie Whittaker in her iconic role as Doctor Who

Omari got to know Doctor Who’s returning showrunner Russell T Davies while they worked alongside one another on his Aids crisis drama It’s A Sin last year.

The source explained: ‘He has also struck up the kind of close working relationship with Russell that helped Christopher [Ecclestone] and David [Tennant] get the sought after role.

‘And although he’s not quite a household name yet, he’s proved he’s a great actor with a memorable performance in It’s a Sin.’

MailOnline has contacted BBC representatives for comment.

Moving on: Jodie became the 13th Doctor back in July 2017 and announced she was leaving the show in this summer

‘He’s proved he’s a great actor’: Omari wowed audiences as Roscoe Babatunde in Russell T Davies Aids crisis drama It’s A Sin at the start of this year (pictured on the show)

It comes after the current Doctor revealed there’s a part of her that ‘wants to keep going’ with the role last week.

Jodie admitted she questions is she ‘sticking to this decision?’ Saying: ‘There’s part of me that could absolutely say, ‘No, let’s keep going! Let’s go back on it!’

Speaking to Radio Times she opened up about her plan to leave the show alongside the current showrunner Chris Chibnall.

Regrets? Jodie admitted she thinks: ‘There’s part of me that could absolutely say, ‘No, let’s keep going! Let’s go back on it!’

She continued: ‘Chris and I always said we were going to do three series together, but then when you get to it, it’s a very different thing.’

Because her departure from our screen’s is not until 2022, Jodie still considers herself the Doctor and said she will ‘drag it out.’

‘I’m still very much the Doctor. I will be until I’m no longer on screen as the Doctor.

‘When it’s my last day of shooting, that will certainly feel as if a huge part of my life is over. But as far as being the Doctor, I get to drag it out for as long as they put the episodes on for.

‘I’m still very much the doctor’: Jodie said she may want to ‘drag out’ leaving the show

‘This job has been, and continues to be, just extraordinary. And the thing is, I know it doesn’t end at the end anyway. Because you’re always the Doctor. You’re always someone’s Doctor.’

Jodie previously revealed she broke down filming her final scenes as Doctor Who.

And she admitted she struggled during her last moments on set, saying she burst into tears and is sure she’ll ‘be filled with a lot of grief’ once the final scenes play out

She said during an online Q&A: ‘I lost it, I was absolutely gone, crying my eyes out. I know that this is the best time I will ever have on a job. I’ve felt like that from the start.’

She continued: ‘Letting go of it, I feel I’ll be filled with a lot of grief because even thinking about it makes me upset. But this show needs new energy.

‘The joy of this part is that you hand on your boots. I don’t know who to, but whoever it is, what a thing to be able to go – ‘you’re going to have a right time’.

‘If everyone comes up to you forever going ‘I’m a Doctor Who fan’ then that’s an absolute joy. Of all the things you’re always going to be associated with, thank God it’s the thing I’ve loved so much.’

Emotional wreck: Jodie previously revealed she broke down filming her final scenes as Doctor Who

Jodie confirmed in July that she was leaving the sci-fi programme after four years.

The West Yorkshire native described her four-year stint manning the T.A.R.D.I.S as being ‘the best job I ever had.’

Jodie was first said to have made the decision to leave in January, with reports at the time discussing a fall in viewership, which has been declining for five years.

Doctor Who? All the actors who have played the Time Lord

The BBC’s hit Sci-fi show Doctor Who was first launched by the BBC in 1963. It chronicles the journey of a Time Lord called ‘The Doctor’.

He is first introduced after fleeing his home planet, Gallifrey.

The Doctor travels through time and space in his spaceship, called a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), which resembles a police box.

During his travels, The Doctor meets people and invites them to voyage with him. They are known as his companions.

He also encounters several evil beings, such as Daleks and Cyberman, and is forced to defeat them sing minimal resources, such as his Sonic Screwdriver, as they try to destroy or take over other planets, including Earth.

As a Time Lord, The Doctor has the capacity to regenerate when he is wounded or dying. After regenerating, he takes on a new appearance and personality.

The concept of regenerating was added into the series after the First Doctor, William Hartnell, became ill and stepped down from his role.

The first run of Doctor Who ended in 1989 before being revived in 2005 with Christopher Ecclestone as the Ninth Doctor.

Below is the full list of the actors who have been cast as the Doctor from 1963 to 2017 – when Jodie Whittaker took over the coveted role.