Again to Center-earth, publish haste! Previous associates are ready.

Ian McKellen, the legendary actor behind Gandalf the Gray within the authentic Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, dropped a bombshell little bit of casting information over the weekend.

"I hear there's going to be one other film based mostly in Center-earth, and it's going to start out filming in Might. It's going to be directed by Gollum, and it's all about Gollum," McKellen teased on the For the Love of Fantasy fan occasion in London on Sunday.

Final yr, authentic LOTR helmer Peter Jackson was introduced as producing a brand new live-action installment in The Lord of the Rings franchise with Gollum actor Andy Serkis directing and starring within the new movie that was slated for a 2026 launch on the time. The movie is now anticipated in December 2027.

McKellen then shocked the viewers with new particulars.

"I'll let you know two secrets and techniques concerning the casting: There's a personality within the film known as Frodo, and there's a personality within the film known as Gandalf," he mentioned.

Smiling to himself as the group gasped in amazement, McKellen joked, "Aside from that, my lips are sealed!"

Leisure Weekly has reached out to a consultant for Warner Bros. for remark.

Ian McKellen jokes that he’d consider playing Gandalf again in Gollum movie — 'If I'm alive' Viggo Mortensen asked Peter Jackson to re-use Aragorn sword, reacts to new 'LOTR' film

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Earlier within the day, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and President David Zaslav mentioned Serkis' movie throughout the firm's quarterly earnings name. Zaslav famous that The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum joins the likes of upcoming Batman, Superman, and Harry Potter tasks on the high of the studio's precedence checklist.

Although McKellen didn’t particularly say whether or not he and authentic Frodo Baggins star Elijah Wooden would reprise their roles within the movie, Wooden was current on the fan occasion, smiling conspiratorially as McKellen spoke alongside fellow LOTR alums Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and John Rhys-Davies.

Because the authentic Lord of the Rings movie trilogy wrapped up in 2003 with the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, McKellen, Wooden, and Jackson all returned to Center-earth with the Hobbit trilogy, which unspooled between 2012 and 2014.

Jackson was not concerned in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy sequence, however final yr he produced the franchise's first animated foray into the works of J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Jackson was joined on the challenge by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, each producers on the unique movie trilogy who’re additionally on board The Hunt for Gollum.

In June, Serkis informed Collider, "We're very early on within the course of. We've been speaking concerning the movie over the course of the final yr. We’re about to start out a interval of prep within the subsequent few months or so. We will likely be capturing within the early to mid-part of subsequent yr, I suppose, after which it'll be so long as it takes to shoot, which — it's a large film — all prepared for a December 2027 launch."

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