Sir Ian McKellen: ‘They better be quick if they want me to play Gandalf again!’

Sir Ian McKellen has added fuel to rumours he’s reprising his iconic role of Gandalf in a new Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

“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,” McKellen tells this week’s Big Issue. “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”

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The 85-year-old actor has spoken to the Big Issue as one of only a few select interviews since a terrifying recent stage fall left him with significant injuries and forced him to drop out of a UK tour mid-run.

McKellen was two months into a season of Player Kings, a condensed version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2, when he fell from the stage into the audience at London’s Noël Coward Theatre.

“I’m left feeling weak physically, which I’m doing exercises for,” McKellen tells the Big Issue, “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.”

McKellen admits he wonders whether the fall was caused by old age. “I’m just trying to convince myself it was an accident,” he says.

“I’m usually working or preparing to work, I’ve been doing a little bit of that, wondering what might be the best plan. I’m going to take the rest of the year off. Not because I need to, just because I want to.”

While recovering at home, McKellen has been watching the American Democratic National Convention play out in Chicago from afar.

“Though we’re not Americans, we have a right to be interested and concerned. It’s not an internal affair. The president in the United States can be a force for good and not good.”

Asked if he’s backing Kamala Harris, McKellen says: “There’s no choice, is there? Oh dear, Trump is so blatantly what he is. Which is slightly reassuring. Other wicked politicians have disguised themselves, it’s all on display with Trump: his prejudices, his ignorance, his stupidity, his incompetence, his lack of experience in matters that matter.

“One impressive message to come out of Chicago has been saying we must listen to each other. Nothing wrong with having a good argument but let’s hear what the disagreements are. You discover that your differences may be huge but actually there are a lot of similarities that bring people together.”

Sir Ian McKellen was speaking to the Big Issue ahead of the release of his new film The Critic, released on 13 September. You can read the full, feature-length interview with in this week’s Big Issue, out now.

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