Ian McKellen has always been very good at responding to his fans, via his official website at www.mckellen.com. In his recent batch of 'E-posts', a charmingly old-fangled phrase, he addresses a couple of reader questions about The Hobbit.
When asked by one fan if he'll again play Gandalf in the upcoming movie, he said, "Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor...encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn't yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!"
Del Toro told us earlier this year that if he makes the film – and the dotting of I's and crossing of T's on this deal seems to be taking forever – that he'd want to bring back cast members who appeared in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So, let's just get these two kids together and make this happen.