Matt Smith once said of the Doctor Who title role that when you’re in it, you’re constantly asked when you’re leaving. And when you’ve left, you’re constantly asked when you’re coming back.

And so it’s proven. In a new interview with MTV, to promote season two of Netflix’s The Crown, Smith was asked the Doctor Who question. And there’s something quite refreshing about how he didn’t sugar coat: he’s more than happy to consider a return.

“Why not?”, he said. “I’d come back, yeah, if the timing was right”.

“I think we’ve got to give a few years to Miss Whittaker to get the TARDIS under her belt, as it were. And then year, one day”.

Not any day soon, mind. Smith admitted that it’d be some time off. But maybe a future anniversary special already has at least two Doctors in place…