Ian McKellen Says He's Been Approached To Play Gandalf In Next Lord Of The Rings Movie

Actor Ian McKellen famously played Gandalf the wise wizard in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film franchises, but could he come back again for the next film, tentatively titled The Hunt for Gollum? The 85-year-old actor recently revealed that he’s been asked to come 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,” he told The Big Issue. “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”

McKellen is likely referring to a previous comment he made regarding The Hunt for Gollum, when he said he would be eager to play Gandalf again so long as he lives long enough for the movie to get made.

Separately, McKellen told the BBC, “I’m not letting anyone else put on the pointy hat and beard if I can help it.” The actor also talked about how he has no plans to stop acting. “I shall just keep at it as long as the legs and the lungs and the mind keep working,” he said.

The actor is now recovering from a fall during a performance of Player Kings, during which he fell off stage and into the audience in London. “I’m left feeling weak physically, which I’m doing exercises for,” he said of his recovery efforts. “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.”

The Hunt for Gollum, which is a non-final title for the movie, is in the works with Lord of the Rings veteran Andy Serkis signed on to direct. Jackson is involved as a producer, while Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are attached to write the screenplay with The War of the Rohirrim writers Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou.

Many are wondering if other actors from the original Lord of the Rings series may come back as well, like Viggo Mortensen in the role of Aragorn. The Hunt for Gollum is said to be a story about the… hunt for Gollum, and both Gandalf and Aragorn would seemingly be involved in that story. The title of the movie suggests the story will chronicle the time when Gandalf sent Aragorn on a journey to find Gollum before he could give secrets away to Sauron’s forces. For what it’s worth, Mortensen has said he would consider coming back to play Aragorn again if the story was right.

McKellen wasn’t the top choice to play Gandalf, as Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery turned the role down before McKellen got involved. McKellen earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. As for Mortensen, he wasn’t originally supposed to play Aragorn, as filming began with Stuart Townsend as Aragorn before a dramatic turn of events saw Townsend get let go.

Even though the film is still in its early stages, Warner Bros. Discovery has said it’s planning to release The Hunt for Gollum sometime in 2026. The next Lord of the Rings movie is The War of the Rohirrim, an animated film coming this December.