Sir Ian McKellen has recently spoken on whether he would ever play Gandalf again on the big screen. He gave a brutally honest answer, but it wasn't a no.
Sir Ian McKellen, famous for numerous roles from the stage to the big screen, is now 85. But, this hasn't stopped him working, and just this year he took to the stage again to play Falstaff in a new adaption of Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, called Player Kings (and by all accounts he did an excellent job).
But will we ever get to see him reprise the iconic role of Gandalf again? That's a question that's been keeping Lord of the Rings fans up for years, especially given more LotR films are on the way, and the anime War of the Rohirrim is due later this year. Now, Sir Ian has given us an answer.
Sir Ian McKellen Will Play Gandalf Again... If He's Alive
As Sir Ian McKellen made clear in a recent interview with The Times, he knows he's getting old; whenever he gets a new script, he apparently thinks "this might be my last job". And so it makes sense that when asked whether he would ever play Gandalf again, he answered coolly, "If I'm still alive". A legend, to be sure.
Despite how active he still is as an actor, it's hard to argue with that thinking. At his age, anything could happen, anytime. But as Lord of the Rings fans, all we can do is thank him for his fantastic contribution so far, and remind ourselves of what Sir Ian McKellen once said as Gandalf:
End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take
If the worst did come to pass, who would you cast as the next Gandalf?