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Ian McKellen Says, "I Don't Want To Play Gandalf Anymore!"

You would think an actor would love to reappear in one of the most popular movie franchises. But is that right?
You can't debate that the Lord of the Rings series is one of the best series ever. Most of the actors in it really got big after it. Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortenseon, Dominic Monaghan, and even Orlando Bloom got their big breaks in The Fellowship of the Ring.

So why would anyone not want to do it again. Is the money too good? Does the camera really make you look that fat? Or do you like rubbing in our faces how un famouse we are?

This is what Mckellen had to say about returning as the great wizard:

"I don't want to play Gandalf again. If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention...forever after you're being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I'm happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro."



What the hell? He doesn't say he wants to do it, but he doesn't say he doesn't want to do it either. But maybe he doesn't want to be the white wizard anymore.

This is what he had to say:

"Grey Gandalf is my favourite," he told us. "Peter Jackson's too, we always preferred Gandalf the Grey. Peter liked him because he got down and dirty. He slept in the hedgerows; he was closer to the earth and not quite so spiritual. He's also funnier -- he's got more variety to him. We thought there was more scope in that Gandalf."

So what do you think. Does he want to return? Do you think he'll always be typecasted as Gandalf? Will The HObbit be better than LOTR? Discuss it all and more below.
0 Yes
3 No
Watchtower31
9/24/2009
latinoreview

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22 Comments

I'm not worried. He'll be Gandalf again.
BmanHall - 9/24/2009, 3:57 PM
best trilogy ever
krypton38 - 9/24/2009, 5:12 PM
i think hobbit will be different than lotr because they are introducing a brand new cast with a whole new feel.
sure jackson is producing but this is now del toro's film and i trust him to make the best hobbit adaptation.
i think i get mckellen's answer. he enjoys playing gandalf but he just doesn't want to be gandalf in every film he makes.
which is why i am pleased that he also has the role of magneto to add to his resume.
Wadey09 - 9/24/2009, 6:26 PM
I've always loved The Hobbit more than LOTR, so I hope they do it very well. To mess up this movie would be too big of a letdown for me
supermarioworldE - 9/24/2009, 8:29 PM
@Mario Same here bro,Hobbit has always been my favourite of all the Middle Earth books
@Krypton 38Got to disagree with you on that point,Back to the Future is the greatest trilogy of all time ;-) But that's just me :-p
darkclaw89 - 9/25/2009, 2:06 AM
@darkclaw89 BACK TO THE FRICKIN FUTURE? I like 1 and 2 but it wouldnt be anyway near the top ten trilogies. I dont know in what order I'd put these put here they are....LOTR...Original Star Wars, the Bourne trilogy, Godfather, The Dollars Trilogy, Spiderman(even tho 3 is weak I still like it), X Men(same goes for Ratners mess), Indiana Jones( I refuse to acknowledge Crystal Skull...steaming shite), Superman (same goes for the fourth entry...Complete shite),Evil Dead triology
krypton38 - 9/25/2009, 3:25 AM
I know what he's feeling..



teabag - 9/25/2009, 5:09 AM
You know what sucks? Posting on another article of the same topic only for it to get deleted because one of the authors cockblocked the other. So all my posts get deleted along with it!
Phinehas - 9/25/2009, 1:26 PM
Nice article Watchtower. You were briefly cockblocked, but whomever took care of it. Don't sweat it.
SirPrize - 9/25/2009, 1:48 PM
He'll be back.
gtrman - 9/25/2009, 3:03 PM
@darkclaw, Im glad im not the only one!
@Krypton, You seriously didn't like the Back To The Future trilogy? Shame.
supermarioworldE - 9/25/2009, 5:09 PM
I think he means after The Hobbit he's done. No Gandalf spin off movies, TV, skits, etc.
SlurpeeGuy - 9/25/2009, 5:59 PM
"forever after you're being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie"
Mr.McKellen is saying he does not want to be typecast as an old white wizard in other movies, he's not talking about Gandalf.
"I don't want to play Gandalf again" He should have said I don't want to play a poor mans Gandalf again.
scottbuster2000 - 9/25/2009, 7:37 PM
I'd put Back to the Future up in the top ten trilogies of all time - there haven't been THAT many good trilogies.

Can't really tell what he means. Almost straight up just contradicted himself lol. Yeah I think he just means he doesn't want to be typecast as a wizard, which he is super amazing at playing, and as he gets older he'll just be better at it.

He'd be a wicked Merlin wouldn't he?
48and2 - 9/25/2009, 9:37 PM
I love this guy. I think his performance as Gandalf was my very favorite acting ever out of any movie.
SixSixteen - 9/25/2009, 10:23 PM
Ok so he doesn't want to play a gandulf type character over and over again in everyone elses wizard movie. Fine. Likes being gandulf the grey? Psh, thats what he's going to be because grey came before white, hobbit before LotRs.

Article is kind of misleading. I was thinking he was going to bail from the hobbit project...
CyborgNinja - 9/26/2009, 2:01 AM
I think he's just saying he doesn't want to be type-cast in other movies (ie. he won't play another wizard). He say here he is happy to return for the Hobbit.

Personally, I always saw Hobbit novel as a set-up piece for LOTR so I doubt my view will change with the movies. I'm sure it will be awesome! But for me "Hobbit" is the warm up act, "LOTR" is the main attraction.

Also, Viggo Mortenseon didn't get his break from LOTR, he was a legend before hand! OK, so not a household name but any true movie fan had heard of him and how people fall over eachother to work with him.
Ron - 9/26/2009, 4:58 PM
Read. "...I'm happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro."

If you read the source document from the "Latino Review" Even they admit the misleading headline it to get you to read the article. You're really stretching to publish news with this. ScottBuster2000 stated it correctly. Getting tired of these crap articles on this site in which the headline is totally misleading (or copied).
Hawkeye - 9/27/2009, 9:13 AM
Sir Alec Guinness didn't want to be Obi-Wan either, but he was, and never complained on-set about it. This isn't that surprising of a statement from Sir Ian McKellen.
J. "Falcon" Ayers - 9/28/2009, 12:47 AM
Gee. Ian, not wanting to get typecast, I see.

Uh, now, why didn't you think about that before accepting the role for BUNGLESNORE?????????

Ian did a fantastic Gandalf, and that coming from someone who has read the Lord of the Rings twenty-eight times, someone VERY hard to please when it comes to Tolkien renditions.

It will be interesting to see the world of Middle Earth through Del Toro's eyes...

And, Howlett, for a "legend before LotR", musta been a very QUIET legend. I'd never heard of that nasally git before LotR, and to me, he's just another loud-mouthed anti-America, anti-West whiner.

Now, CLIVE OWEN, the ORIGINAL CHOICE for Aragorn, would have blown the audience out the back of the theater, but then again, he could not stand the BS that Pippa Boyens and Peter "Zeppelin" Jackson made of Tolkien's masterpiece.
bropous - 9/28/2009, 7:22 AM
punishment
FrankCastle1 - 10/25/2009, 4:57 PM

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