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"Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has said that gender should not dictate who plays the show&amp;#039;s main role. Peter Capaldi will play the 12th Doctor from Christmas onwards, though Moffat told Nerd Cubed that he is &amp;quot;reasonably confident&amp;quot; a female performer will eventually be cast.  &amp;quot;The problem with this whole [female Doctor] argument is everybody [just] says &amp;#039;a woman&amp;#039; - you don&amp;#039;t ever cast &amp;#039;a man&amp;#039; as the Doctor, you cast a particular man,&amp;quot; Moffat explained. &amp;quot;One day I&amp;#039;m reasonably confident somebody in this [showrunner] role - whether it&amp;#039;s me or someone else - will say not, &amp;#039;Let&amp;#039;s cast a woman&amp;#039;, they&amp;#039;ll say, &amp;#039;That person, that&amp;#039;s the one who could the be the Doctor&amp;#039;.&amp;quot;  The sci-fi drama&amp;#039;s head writer insisted that finding a star to play the Doctor should not be about &amp;quot;casting a gender&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re just casting someone that you think will set that role on fire,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I think for now that is Peter - I thought it was Matt [Smith] before - it&amp;#039;s not about the gender thing.&amp;quot; Doctor Who will return to BBC One for its 50th anniversary special, &amp;#039;The Day of the Doctor&amp;#039;, on Saturday, November 23. &amp;gt; Doctor Who Matt Smith &amp;#039;heartbreaking&amp;#039; in final episode, says Moffat Watch a teaser for the Doctor Who 50th special below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a519713/doctor-who-casting-not-about-the-gender-says-steven-moffat/>