David Tennant has quashed rumours he portrays the tenth Doctor regenerated as the fourteenth Doctor in the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials according to The Sunday Times.

In the interview, Tennant gives an ambiguous, puzzling quote interpreted by The Sunday Times as a denial that he portrays the fourteenth incarnation of Doctor.

“Ncuti Gatwa will be the next Doctor Who and that’s about as much as I am prepared to say.”

This quote is open to interpretation in many ways. The prevailing rumour is that an incarnation played by Tennant will function as a bridge between the thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and the fourteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).

One of the more plausible rumours put forward by showrunner Russell T Davies to Doctor Who Magazine is that Tennant’s 60th Anniversary Doctor incarnation is an illusion created by an old enemy.

“A mysteriously forgotten excursion for the TARDIS in between Planet of the Ood and Sontaran Strategem? Or maybe a multiverse thing, they’re all the rage these days. Maybe this is the Doctor and Donna from Universe 557, all set to collide with our own. Then again, maybe, just maybe, this return is so impossible that it’s actually an intricate illusion created by an old enemy of the Doctor’s. Or maybe an old enemy of Donna’s. Nerys! Of course, I wouldn’t give that away in the pages of DWM, would I? But then again. This magazine is the first place I ever revealed the name of Billie Piper’s Rose (in issue 340). So read carefully. There are truths in here.”

This old enemy of the Doctor Davies mentions could possibly be The Toymaker, who is rumoured to be the character Neil Patrick Harris portrays for the Doctor Who 60th anniversary.

The three specials starring David Tennant as the Doctor are expected to air in 2023, the 60th anniversary year for Doctor Who.

Filming for Doctor Who Series 14 will commence in November 2022 with Ncuti Gatawa portraying a new incarnation of the Doctor. Series 14 will likely air in 2024.