Actor Ian McKellen addressed the possibility of him reprising his role as Gandalf in the recently announced The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), Warner Bros.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was announced last month with Warner Bros. Discovery detailing that actor Andy Serkis would not only be reprising his role as Gollum, but he would direct the film as well.
The company also shared that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens would be producing the film. Warner Bros. Film heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy stated, “We are honored they have agreed be our partners on these two new films. With Andy coming aboard to direct ‘Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,’ we continue an important commitment to excellence that is a true hallmark of how we all want to venture ahead and further contribute to the Lord of the Rings cinematic history.”
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
For their part, Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said, “It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker — Gollum! As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”
Serkis also added, “Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa. With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our filmmaking family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious…”
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
In an interview with Deadline, Serkis discussed what other characters might appear in the film aside from Gollum, “That’s a difficult question to answer right at this moment in time, because we’re really in the nascent stages of what it is exactly where we’re doing, and where the story’s going to take us.”
“So I don’t want to commit anything right now. I mean, because it’s so raw and so raw and wriggling, and we are just literally having very early state script discussions and ideas of exactly where and how we’re going to drop anchor with the character and his journey and how he is or comes into contact with other characters, and the characters that we know and don’t know. So still, I would hate to say anything that’s going to commit us at this point, because it’s literally all up for grabs,” he concluded.
Andy Serkis speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Black Panther”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The film will likely include Gandalf and Aragorn given they are two of the main characters hunting for Gollum. Gandalf informs Frodo about the hunt for Gollum in The Fellowship of the Ring, “Light, light of Sun and Moon, he still feared and hated, and he always will, I think; but he was cunning. He found he could hide from daylight and moonshine, and make his way swiftly and softly by dead of night with his pale cold eyes, and catch small frightened or unwary things. He grew stronger and bolder with new food and new air. He found his way into Mirkwood, as one would expect.”
Gandalf then informs Frodo that he did indeed see Gollum in Mirkwood, “‘I saw him there. … but before that he had wandered far, following Bilbo’s trail. It was difficult to learn anything from him for certain, for his talk was constantly interrupted by curses and threats.”
After recalling the manner of Gollum’s curses and threats, he told Frodo, “But from hints dropped among the snarls I gathered that his padding feet had taken him at last to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale, listening secretly and peering. Well, the news of the great events went far and wide in Wilderland, and many had heard Bilbo’s name and knew where he came from. We had made no secret of our return journey to his home in the West. Gollum’s sharp ears would soon learn what he wanted.”
Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
When asked why Gollum did not make it to the Shire, Gandalf said to Frodo, ” I think Gollum tried to. He set out and came back westward, as far as the Great River. But then he turned aside. He was not daunted by the distance, I am sure. No, something else drew him away. So my friends think, those that hunted him for me.”
As for who those friends are, Gandalf regaled Frodo, “The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back again it led them, though they never caught him. The wood was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.”
Next, Gandalf explains to Frodo how he let the trail go cold, “But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned away. It wandered off southwards and passed out of the Wood-elves’ ken, and was lost. And then I made a great mistake. Yes, Frodo, and not the first; though I fear it may prove the worst. I let the matter be. I let him go; for I had much else to think of at that time, and I still trusted the lore of Saruman.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema
However, with the help of Aragorn he was able to pick it back up again, “And my search would have been in vain, but for the help that I had from a friend: Aragorn, the greatest traveller and huntsman of this age of the world. Together we sought for Gollum down the whole length of Wilderland, without hope, and without success. But at last, when I had given up the chase and turned to other paths, Gollum was found. My friend returned out of great perils bringing the miserable creature with him.”
“What he had been doing he would not say,” Gandalf said to Frodo. “He only wept and called us cruel, with many a gollum in his throat; and when we pressed him he whined and cringed, and rubbed his long hands, licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if he remembered some old torture. But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf confronts King Theoden in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2022), New Line Cinema
Now, in an interview with the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times, McKellen addressed the possibility of reprising his most famous role telling the outlet that he has heard “stirrings in Tolkien land.”
He also indicated he’s already been working on the beard due to his role of Falstaff in Player Kings, “And I haven’t shaved in months.”
However, he also detailed, “But there is no script, there is no offer, there is no plan.” Nevertheless, he does seem interested in returning to the role and joked, “If I’m alive.”
Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Shadowfax in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), New Line Cinema
What do you make of McKellen’s comments? Would you want to see McKellen reprise his role as Gandalf?
NEXT: Peter Jackson Explains Why He’s Returning To ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ With ‘The Hunt For Gollum’
