Ian McKellen confirms he’s been approached about playing Gandalf in The Hunt for Gollum, adding that it could be a two-parter.
It was announced earlier this year that more movies in the Lord of the Rings franchise were in development. The first of these movies will be The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum starring Andy Serkis, who will also direct the film; Or, perhaps I should say… films. While speaking on This Morning in the UK, Ian McKellen confirmed that he has been approached about reprising his role of Gandalf for The Hunt for Gollum, but he claims that the movie will actually be a two-parter. Gotta milk that Middle-earth, baby!
“Well, all I know is that they called me up and said these films were going to happen, that [they’re] mainly going to be about Gollum,” McKellen said. “Andy Serkis, who played Gollum, is going to direct, and there will be a script arriving sometime in the new year…and then I’ll judge whether I want to go back. I’m told it’s two films. I probably shouldn’t be saying this. But I haven’t read the script, and I don’t know when it is, and I don’t even know where it will be filmed.“
As we don’t know much about The Hunt for Gollum‘s plot, it’s hard to say whether there will be enough story for two movies. As we know, The Hobbit was originally envisioned as a two-parter before the choice was made to expand it to three movies. I think we can agree that it spread the story a little too thin. This is just speculation on my part, but it’s also possible that the second movie is another Lord of the Rings project that could involve Gandalf.
It’s been ten years since McKellen last played Gandalf, but the 85-year-old actor recently said that if they want him to reprise the role once again, they’d “better be quick” about it.
Serkis dropped a few teases about The Hunt for Gollum earlier this year. “It is so early; it would be unfair to commit to anything at this point,” Serkis said. “But I will say that it will be a deep dive where we investigate Gollum’s character. There may be characters that we recognize that might be coming back. I’m not going to say who.“
While we did see a lot of Gollum’s saga play out in the previous six movies, Peter Jackson has previously said that there’s still a lot of story left to be told. “The Gollum/Sméagol character has always fascinated me because Gollum reflects the worst of human nature, whilst his Sméagol side is, arguably, quite sympathetic,” Jackson said. “I think he connects with readers and film audiences alike, because there’s a little bit of both of them in all of us. We really want to explore his backstory and delve into those parts of his journey we didn’t have time to cover in the earlier films. It’s too soon to know who will cross his path, but suffice to say we will take our lead from Professor Tolkien.“
Do you think The Hunt for Gollum will ultimately consist of two movies?