Jenna Coleman Is Reportedly Leaving 'Doctor Who', Again

Incumbent Doctor Who companion Jenna Coleman is reportedly on the way out from the long-running BBC sci-fi series, with renewed speculation that the 29-year-old actress will be finished with the show by Christmas.

The impetus for this year's suspicions that former Impossible Girl Clara Oswald will be taking her final dashes with The Doctor before Santa takes his annual sojourn 'round the world come from several sources (the BBC itself among them, though without 'confirmation') suggesting that Coleman will be taking up a starring role in a "major ITV drama series" about Queen Victoria. 

Ahead of 2014's Christmas special, head writer Steven Moffat confirmed to the BBC that Coleman had, at the time, asked to leave the show before later changing her mind.

"That was her last episode," he told the BBC. "Then she asked me if she could be in [the] Christmas [episode]. So I said, 'OK, I'll write you out in Christmas.'

"She came to the read-through and did the 'write-out' version - and again changed her mind."

"But the truth is I never wanted her to go," he continued. "And with Last Christmas, I'd already written the alternative version where she stayed, and I preferred that version.

"Frankly, I didn't want to lose her. She's an amazing actress, and she never stops working to make Clara better. I was very happy to go the extra mile to make sure we could keep her."

Although ITV hasn't commented on the veracity of the casting of Coleman — or anyone else, for that matter — the prevailing expectation is that she will make her final appearance in this year's Christmas special (which also features a returning Alex Kingston as beloved character River Song), with the BBC admitting that "it is understood that Coleman has already filmed her final scenes for Doctor Who".

Coleman joined the show in 2012, when previous Doctor Matt Smith was still in the Time-Lord's shoes. After a middling debut full season (which was less her fault than it was the writers'), she swiftly asserted herself as one of the better companions of the revival as a counterpoint and complement to Capaldi's heavy-browed, universe-weary Twelfth Doctor.

The ninth season of Doctor Who returns to ABC this Sunday, 20 September.