Ian McKellen says he’s still young enough to play Gandalf again.
Todd Eyre/Warner Bros.The way Sir Ian McKellen figures it, he’s still got 6.922 years left to play Gandalf.
Last month, Amazon announced plans for a multi-season series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series. And McKellen, who played the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, says he’s up for another trip to Middle-earth.
McKellen appeared on BBC Radio2 with Graham Norton on Saturday, and Norton brought up the Amazon series. “There’s going to be another Gandalf in town,” Norton said.
Not so fast, buddy.
“Well, what do you mean?” said McKellen, 78. He then admitted he hadn’t been asked to play the role, but said, “Gandalf is 7,000 years old, so I’m not too old.”
McKellen currently is providing the voice of the demon in the London production of “The Exorcist,” though he’s not seen on stage. The Guardian newspaper calls him “the classiest thing in a show that is less head-turningly scary than mind-numbingly dull and about as spooky as a wet sock.”
No date has been announced for the Amazon “Lord of the Rings” series.
