X-Men Actor Nicholas Hoult Almost Nabbed A Role In Doctor Who

As Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Dracula) continues his retrospective of Doctor Who‘s recent finale, the esteemed writer-actor spoke with DWM (Doctor Who Magazine) about his tenure within BBC’s beloved sci-fi series.

It’s shaping up to be a must-read for fans of the illustrious Time Lord, but thanks to the folks at DoctorWho.tv, one tidbit has snuck out ahead of time: Nicholas Hoult almost nabbed a role in Doctor Who at an early age, when the X-Men stalwart was in contention to play Tommy.

Hoult, who has cemented his status as a cornerstone of Fox’s X-Men prequel series through appearances in First Class, Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse and, presumably, the forthcoming Dark Phoenix movie, ultimately lost out to Rory Jennings. That largely came down to the fact that the Powers That Be couldn’t obtain a license to work with the young Nicholas Hoult, as Gatiss recalls in his interview with DWM:

I also remember Nicholas Hoult was going to play that part, but we couldn’t get the licence to work because he was too young! But Rory Jennings who played Tommy was wonderful, and he was actually a lot older than he looked.

Had things panned out differently, and Nicholas Hoult was able to play the part, the actor may well have ventured down a different path on his route to stardom. Nevertheless, Mark Gatiss went on to reveal that the character of Tommy was originally gay in the early drafts.

Oh, I do remember something very, very, very vividly: in the early drafts the boy Tommy is gay and he has a crush on the Doctor. Rose thinks he’s interested in her, then goes ‘Oh!’ and realizes Tommy’s been talking about the Doctor all along.

And the Doctor has to have a quiet word with him. When they get back in the TARDIS, Rose says something like, ‘It’s quite sweet isn’t it – obviously you wouldn’t be interested’. And the Doctor plays Don’t Fence Me In by Cole Porter, like James Bond saying, ‘What makes you think it’s my first time?’ [A reference to a scene in 2012’s Skyfall.] I thought it’d be nice to have the Doctor telling Rose not to make any assumptions about him.

On the heels of the rather bittersweet season 10 finale, and the long-awaited appointment of the Thirteenth Doctor (spoilers: it’s Jodie Whittaker), next up for the Who-verse is the 2017 Christmas Special, which will inject a little Doctor Who into your festive season sometime in December. Meanwhile, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is due to hit theaters on November 2nd, 2018.