Just last month it was announced that Amazon had acquired the television rights for a Lord of the Rings television series for their streaming service in the same vein of Game of Thrones. To many fans relief, the series will not be a retelling of Peter Jackson’s original trilogy and will instead delve into “unexplored stories” in Middle-Earth before Fellowship of the Ring.
While on Graham Norton’s BBC Radio 2 show actor Sir Ian McKellen was asked if it would be annoying seeing another actor play the Grey Wizard Gandalf in the upcoming series. To which the actor responded quite cleverly:
“What do you mean, another Gandalf? I haven’t said yes because I haven’t been asked. But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I’m not too old.”
Using Gandalf as the connective tissue to make the series and films both canon would be a great idea.However, it’s unknown if the two projects are connected at this point.
Lord of the Rings will stream exclusively on Amazon