During an interview with PEOPLE, McKellen revealed that he was initially offered a role in “Mission: Impossible II” with Tom Cruise, and he was eager to work on it save for the fact that he did not have the complete script because producers deemed it extremely confidential.
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Sir Ian said the decision proved to be a landmark moment for him, opening the door for other opportunities. Meanwhile, in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, he played ultimate good guy Gandalf. I only got my scenes, ‘ McKellen tells People.com. “I’m just endlessly fascinated with this character and how he can be interpreted and reinterpreted and put in different situations with different genres, and you know, it’s just fantastic, and I find I always want more”. “So I said no. And my agent said, “You can’t say no to working with Tom Cruise!’ and I said, ‘I think I will”.
As shooting for X-Men then ran behind schedule, McKellen pulled out of the Lord of the Rings role but Jackson decided he was worth waiting for and held off shooting until he was ready.
We can thank Tom or the casting director for not sending that full script to McKellen, because the next day, McKellen got offered both roles of Magneto and Gandalf by Bryan Singer and Peter Jackson, respectively. It had to delay, delay, delay, delay. Shortly after that, he got the call from Peter Jackson to play Gandalf. But Singer insisted to McKellen, “Well, you must do Gandalf”. I told Bryan Singer and he said, “Well, you must do Gandalf”.
He said, “It’s all about luck – being there at the right time and ready for it”.
However, despite agreeing to play both characters, according to Cinemablend, McKellen nearly did not portray the wizened wizard of “Lord of the Rings“, saying that he was more committed to playing his role in “X-Men“.
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Actor Dougray Scott had originally been cast as Wolverine in “X-Men“, but scheduling issues with his previous gig, as the villain on “M:I II”, forced him to drop out of the super hero flick. “You can’t prepare for luck”.
