'LOTR' Superfans Are Dying to Know if Sir Ian McKellen Will Appear in the Amazon Series
Published July 6 2022, 2:00 p.m. ET
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us," Sir Ian McKellen's Gandalf famously says in Peter Jackson's 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — which is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's 1954 novel The Fellowship of the Ring. With three volumes of books — two per volume — three Lord of the Rings movies, and three Hobbit movies, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth saga has been a staple in the realms of fantasy and sci-fi for numerous decades.
And now, in 2022, a new Lord of the Rings installment will be hitting streaming giant Amazon's Prime Video. Titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon's project will be a TV series from creators Patrick McKay and John D. Payne. "The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” the creators said in a statement, per GQ.
The Rings of Power will star Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), Robert Aramayo (Behind Her Eyes), Markella Kavenagh (My First Summer), Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), and Lenny Henry (Danny and the Human Zoo), among others.
But wait, where's Gandalf? Is Sir Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes) reprising his iconic role?
Will Sir Ian McKellen return as Gandalf in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'?
“I’ve been waiting for the call – and it hasn’t come," Ian McKellen told Amol Rajan of BBC2 in March 2022. “And there are going to be new shows from Tolkien under the title Lord of the Rings, I think on television. But I gather that Gandalf won’t be a part of them, and if he is ... well it’s the one part you can’t be too old for. I think he’s about 7,000 years old," he quipped.
Though Ian sadly will not be a part of Amazon's Lord of the Rings series, the 83-year-old said that he wishes to "treat every job as if it’s the last I’ll ever do.” He knows he may no longer be in his "prime."
“Death is a part of my life now. My friends are dying," he said. Ian, that is bleak! “They die, and then they’re over and here I am still."
Whatever the Oscar nominee does next, we'll be watching.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Sept. 2, 2022, on Prime Video.