The rumors are already swirling as to who’s going to play the next Doctor Who

Not 24 hours after the Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi announced he was leaving Doctor Who after the 2016 Christmas Special, speculation began to surface on who could possibly be the next Time Lord. If you check the betting odds British actors Andrew Scott, Lara Pulver, Ben Daniels, Rory Kinnear, Russell Tovey, and Ben Whishaw are all on the table. Although the Internet has ideas of its own of course.

The Doctor has pretty much always regenerated as a white male, so many think it’s time to diversify by having a woman or male of color join the ranks.

Doctor Who: Billie Piper says it's time to cast a woman

— Jonathan Johnson (@JJonny72) January 31, 2017

*Steps up to the podium* "I'll make this brief. @RichardAyoade or Hayley Atwell. Thank you." *grabs papers, walks away* #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/KF0eGpCNra

— Anthony Carboni (@acarboni) January 31, 2017

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/826520934014148608

So what do you need to become the next great Doctor? Mostly you need to be British and open to traveling through time and space in a TARDIS — basically a super cool phone booth. The Doctor regenerates every few seasons, basically when an actor decides they’re ready to leave. Peter Capaldi announced his exit saying:

"I feel sad, I love Doctor Who," the actor explained."It's a fantastic programme to work on. It's been a huge pleasure to work with a... family, really. As I say, I can't praise the people I've worked with more highly. But I've always been someone who did a lot of different things. I've never done one job for three years, this is the first time I've done this, and I feel it's sort of time for me to move on to different challenges."

It seems like Agent Carter‘s Hayley Atwell and The IT Crowd‘s Richard Ayoade are heavy fan favorites — at least through the oh-so-scientific method of scrolling through Twitter. Atwell proved she had the action and comedy chops on Agent Carter (and has actually already stated that she’d *love* to play the Doctor) while Ayoade was hilarious as Moss on The IT Crowd and certainly has the zaniness down.

Like James Bond, the decision for who will play the next Doctor will certainly be taken very seriously and involve plenty of vetting. But hey, change can be good!

Peter Capaldi’s final season of Doctor Who will begin on April 15th.