It appears that Ian McKellen will indeed be putting on the big hat and picking up the staff again to appear as Gandalf in the upcoming “The Hobbit” movie. At least, if either he or Peter Jackson have anything to say about it. Our friends over at Firstshowing give us this when referencing McKellen’s official site:
The third question down gets right to the point - will you again be our Gandalf in The Hobbit now that the deal is settled?
“Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor. I’ve just read your quote out loud - fabulous speech.”
The quote he speaks of is one that the questioner took straight from The Hobbit: Shall the dreaming masses with their musty books and their blackened pipes at long last hear those immortal words issued from under that famous nose? “Yes, yes, my dear sir–and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you do know my name, though you don’t remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons at the door!”
One other question inquired as to whether he had actually be approached by Peter Jackson yet since filming is supposed to commence in 2009. His answer:
“Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn’t imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn’t yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!”
Ok, this is very good news, and not surprising in the least. I think we all knew that if Peter Jackson was going to be involved in The Hobbit movie in any way, that we’d more than likely see McKellen back in the hat (as long as he’s still around in 2009 to film), and personally I couldn’t be happier to see him come back.
Having said that… I would have been just fine with another actor stepping up to play the role. If you can have different Batmans, if you can have different James Bonds, if you can have different Jack Ryans then you can have a different actor play Gandalf. And if you “can’t imagine” that, then you don’t have much of an imagination. But as I said, all other things being equal, I would rather see McKellen back… and I’m glad it seems that’s the way it played out
