Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged: amazon, Ian McKellan, lord of the rings
Ian McKellan Wants to Play Gandalf in Amazon's Lord of the Rings
When we learned in November that Amazon was planning to produce a Lord of the Rings TV show, fans of the iconic fantasy novels experienced joy at knowing that finally someone would be able to do the story more justice than 12 hours worth of movies and 37 hours of Hobbit prequels ever could. But setting aside the question of whether we'll finally get a Lord of the Rings where there's less action and proportionally more characters reciting poetry for hours after every important scene, we also wonder who Amazon can possibly get to play the characters in the story that can top the great casting choices from the films.
Well, Sir Ian McKellan, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, has the answer: just ask him to come back!
McKellan appeared on the Graham Norton Show, where he was asked about it by the titular host. Digital Spy has the transcription:
"Amazon are doing a TV series of Lord of the Rings," Graham began. "Now isn't that annoying? That there's going to be another Gandalf in town?"
"What do you mean, another Gandalf?" McKellen replied, prompting Graham to ask if that means he's taking part in the series.
"I haven't said yes because I haven't been asked," the actor continued. "But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it?
"Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I'm not too old [yet]."
The ball, it seems, is in Amazon's court.