Lord of the Rings fans are spoiled for choice these days. Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is here, and a new animated, The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim movie is on the way later this year. On top of that, two new live-action films from Peter Jackson are on the way. The only thing we know for certain is that Andy Serkis will direct the first, and return to play Gollum, but we expect others from the original series may also appear, and Sir Ian McKellen has confirmed that he has been asked.
Speaking with Big Issue while recovering from a recent fall while performing Shakespeare, the Gandalf actor revealed that he has been approached about reprising his role as Gandalf in the tentatively titled, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt For Gollum. It doesn't sound like there's any guarantee that McKellen will appear quite yet, but if Gandalf is in the movie (which seems likely), Peter Jackson and company hope the actor will return. McKellen said…
Enthusiasm for The Lord of the Rings shows no sign of abating … I can’t tell you any more than that. 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.
“Hope” is certainly doing a lot of work here. The actor is clearly referring to his own mortality, as the most likely reason the actor might not return would be if he were no longer with us. McKellen has previously said that he’s interested in returning as Gandalf, assuming that he’s still alive when the time comes to do so.
He reiterated that idea, saying that the writers better be quick and get the script written because time is of the essence given he's 85 at this point. He continued, morbid-but-hopeful:
When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So, they better be quick.
Ian McKellen isn’t the only one who has had a memorable response to the idea of returning for more Lord of the Rings movies. When Viggo Mortensen was asked about the idea of returning to play Aragorn again, he said it would depend on the script's quality --unless he really needed money.
Director Andy Serkis has so far avoided talking about characters or actors returning to the franchise. Since the movie hasn’t been written yet, it seems unlikely even the filmmakers knows all the characters that may appear in the film. Still, I personally think it's all but certain that if any characters from the previous Lord of the Rings or Hobbit trilogies will appear, they’ll want the original actors back as well.
On the one hand, getting that script done quickly may help land actors like Ian McKellen, but on the other, fans certainly won’t want to see the new movies rushed the way the Hobbit movies were.
