“I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide.”

The immortal words spoken by Gandalf the White in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towersas he returns to his friends in the Fellowship.

And it seems that Sir Ian McKellen could be coming back to his beloved role as J.R.R. Tolkien’s wizard after revealing that he had been approached about featuring in the new Lord of the Rings films.

McKellen told The Big Issue: “Enthusiasm for The Lord of the Rings shows no sign of abating … I can’t tell you any more than that. 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 85-year-old actor, who is recovering from falling off stage in Player Kings in London’s West End, added: “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So, they better be quick.”

In a separate interview with BBC Breakfast, McKellen said he had no plans to retire from acting. “I shall just keep at it as long as the legs and the lungs and the mind keep working,” said the actor, who is promoting new movie The Critic.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced in May that Andy Serkis will direct and star in two new LOTR films, working titled Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The first movie is slated to release in 2026.

Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the original trilogy, are set to write the screenplay, along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou (Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim).

Peter Jackson will produce. McKellen starred as Gandalf in all of Jackson’s original movies and The Hobbit trilogy. His return to the franchise would be a major coup for Serkis.

McKellen lost his footing on stage as John Falstaff in Player Kings. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that he had physically recovered from the incident, during which he suffered a broken wrist.

“It’s emotionally that I’ve got some residue that I’ve got to deal with,” he said. “I said to myself as I tripped and slid off the stage, ‘This is the end’. These were the words in my mind, ‘This is the end. ‘And apparently I shouted out, ‘My neck is broken, I’m dying.’ I don’t remember saying that, so there was a lot going on in my head as the body responded to the fall.”

McKellen said he is taking the rest of 2024 off, meaning he could return to acting next year, which is likely when the new Lord of the Rings movies will go into production.