For as much as we enjoyed the 'Doctor Who' 50th anniversary special trailer from Comic-Con 2013 (seriously, why isn't it online yet?), fans of the long-running series were no doubt disappointed that the series had only tapped one past Doctor in David Tennant, rather than the others rumored. There may yet be a bit of life to the rumors, however, as Paul McGann may reprise his role as the eighth Doctor!

The latest bit comes from BleedingCool, who claims that the most recent doctor before Christopher Eccleston may return for at least a regeneration scene, showing us how McGann's character changed into John Hurt's "forgotten" Doctor. If true, the regeneration could appear as a mini-sode prelude to the 50th anniversary special's November airdate. Here's what the report had to say:

I’ve got it on very good authority that eighth Doctor Paul McGann has filmed something for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary, but haven’t been able to verify exactly what.

I did, some time ago, get a tip-off that the actor will appear in a minisode prologue to the 50th special, and that this little film would feature his regeneration into John Hurt’s form. The idea, I heard, was for this to drop sometime in early November, either on TV, in cinemas or on the BBC website. Or all of the above.

At the time, I was sceptical, but more information has come to light recently which firms up McGann’s involvement in… something. And that something could very well be the minisode.

Normally we might ignore such an untethered report, but given showrunner Steven Moffat's recent Comic-Con words that he'd been "lying his ass off" in interviews over who would return for the forthcoming special, we thought it worth a mention regardless. Apart from Eccleston, McCann's iteration of the Doctor remains one of the few 'Doctor Who' stars young enough to conceivably play his counterpart again.

Well, what say you? Do you think the 'Doctor Who' 50th anniversary special will have more past surprises than we've been led to believe? Check out a special Comic-Con video from Matt Smith below, and give us your predictions in the comments!

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