We got the news back in May that Peter Jackson & Co were diving back into Middle-earth to make more Lord of the Rings movies. It was an unexpected announcement. Tentatively titled LOTR: The Hunt for Gollum, the new films (they’re saying two, but they said that for The Hobbit…) will dig deeper into the story of that wayward hobbit, Gollum. So the events will have to occur before The Hobbit and/or between The Hobbit and LOTR. Which means once again, the timeline presents a pesky problem in that the story is going backwards chronologically, while the actors continue to age forwards, inconveniently. This issue is not lost on Gandalf himself, Sir Ian McKellen, who’s still recovering from falling off a stage in June. In fact he’s just said publicly to his very old friends, who are still working on the script, that: “they better be quick!” if they intend to invite him along on another adventure. Heed the wizard.

Sir Ian McKellen is willing to reprise his role as Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, but it needs to happen soon.

“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,” the actor, 85, told Big Issue magazine. “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”

McKellen fell in June during a performance of “Player Kings,” a new version of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” in London.

He told the publication he wonders if the fall happened because he is elderly.

“I’m just trying to convince myself it was an accident,” McKellen said.

“I’m left feeling weak physically, which I’m doing exercises for,” he added. “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.”

The legendary actor has appeared in multiple “Lord of the Rings” films and likes being busy.

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

[From CNN]

Argh, I hate hearing how rattled Sir Ian sounds! Though I appreciate his candor. But we don’t like our wizards rattled; we like them solid and assured of all answers. While 85 is young for a wizard, it’s less-young for a human and arguably ancient for an actor (yet it’s less of an issue for actors of the male variety, riddle me that). But I actually think it’ll be easier to make Gandalf seem age-appropriate on screen — given he lives for, what, centuries? — than it will be to bring back other characters like Aragorn (he’s a likely contender to return, but no official plot points have been confirmed). Unless they’re planning on using the de-aging technology, which I have mixed feelings about. So, what are the filmmakers thinking? I have to admit, I did not see this one coming in my palantir. After all, with two trilogies under their belts, it felt like Jackson and co-writers/developers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh had truly gone there and back again in terms of mining the material. Was the flame rekindled in watching Amazon Prime’s The Rings of Power? Did Andy Serkis (who will direct and star in the new films) make one pitch to rule them all? Did Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav pinky-swear promise he wouldn’t can the finished product for a tax write-off? Whatever the reason, this is what the longtime collaborators have decided to do with the time given to them.

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Photos credit: PA Images/INSTARimages, Getty and via YouTube/Top 5 Gandalf Scenes