Will the next cinematic installment of Tolkien’s fantasy series be titled “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Wizard”?
It may well be if the filmmakers succeed in conjuring up Ian McKellen as Gandalf again. McKellen, who played the beloved grey pilgrim in the first three films as well as the subsequent “Hobbit” movies, has revealed there is already magic at work behind the scenes to bring him back.
“I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him,” McKellen told British magazine the Big Issue. “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”
Earlier this year Warner Bros. confirmed the first new film in the series was set to be released in 2026 and that it would focus on Gollum, played by Andy Serkis in the original films. The working title is currently “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.”
The films’ original director, Peter Jackson, will produce the movie alongside his longtime producing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The film is still in the early stages of development. Serkis is set to executive produce alongside Ken Kamins and Jonathan Cavendish.
McKellen, who is 85 years old, recently suffered significant physical harm including a chipped vertebrae after falling during a stage performance of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2” in the U.K. The accident earlier this summer in London’s Noël Coward Theatre forced the actor to cut short his run as buffoonish kingly companion Falstaff, with only the fat suit he was wearing preventing him from being more seriously injured after he tripped on stage and fell into the audience.
“I’m left feeling weak physically, which I’m doing exercises for,” McKellen said of the accident. “And, of course, it’s emotional. We all trip all our lives, it’s just when you get to my age you can’t always get up again.”
“I’m just trying to convince myself it was an accident [rather than old age],” he says. “I’m usually working or preparing to work, I’ve been doing a little bit of that, wondering what might be the best plan. I’m going to take the rest of the year off. Not because I need to, just because I want to.”
From Variety US