Sir Ian McKellen is part of an elite group of actors who’ve played main characters in very popular franchises. He’s currently 86 years old and is reprising both of his roles as Gandalf in the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hunt for Gollum and as Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday. Gollum reportedly starts filming this spring while Doomsday is set to come out this December. Sir Ian recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to chat about both films and promote his show, An Ark.
This is the first time the X-Men have appeared in the big Marvel Cinematic Universe films, although characters like Logan/Wolverine and Quicksilver have popped up in the movies and TV shows before. While talking with Stephen about wearing the Magneto suit for the first time in over a decade, Sir Ian made a funny confession while possibly dropping a big plot spoiler.
Though he’s long remained a cornerstone of the original X-Men film series, Sir Ian McKellen is admitting that even he has trouble following the general story presented in his long-running superhero franchise.
Appearing on a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the 86-year-old McKellen opened up about his upcoming role in the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday.
When asked to comment about his role in the film, McKellen made a hilariously surprising confession about his character, Magneto, within the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also gave a seemingly minor spoiler about his part in Avengers: Doomsday, including the fact that he’s set to destroy an entire state at some point in the movie.
“Now, I don’t always understand the story of these movies I’m in,” McKellen said.
“Neither do I, but it doesn’t really matter,” the show’s host, Stephen Colbert, answered with a laugh.
“But in this one, I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that Magneto destroys New Jersey,” McKellen continued. “I’m sorry about that New Jersey.”
As most fans are sure to know, McKellen has portrayed the X-Men’s overarching antagonist Magneto since the first X-Men film released in 2000. Over the years, the Lord of the Rings star has appeared as the super-powered Mutant a total of five times, with his final on-screen appearance coming courtesy of 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
That is hilarious. To be fair, there are a bunch of Marvel movies from the past few years that I didn’t understand the story of, either. (I’m looking at you, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.) I can’t imagine Ian McKellen sitting on the couch and catching up with a bajillion Marvel movies and TV shows in order to know what the hell is going on in a franchise that he’s joining 30+ movies deep. Maybe someone tried to explain why Robert Downey Jr. was suddenly playing Dr. Doom instead of Iron Man, and he decided that he didn’t need to know what was going on. There was also a whole-ass movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past that basically negated all of the events of X3: The Last Stand. It’s a lot!
Sir Ian’s comedic timing while telling the story about getting back into character once again is impeccable, too. You have to watch the video clip of him revealing what he picked when whichever Russo brother was directing him at the time told him to find motivation by shouting “the worst thing” he could possibly think of. (Spoiler: It’s a place that rhymes with “Far-a-Pago.”) I was not expecting it, and it was a payoff that made me laugh out loud.
Photos credit: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, Cover Images
I adored Ian’s interview with Colbert. If
you haven’t had a chance to go watch it, the Shakespearean monologue he performed was breathtaking and moving.
I was awestruck by his reading of that Shakespeare piece. Please everyone watch it. Ian McKellen is stunning and the piece is so timely. Colbert looked moved to tears, as was I.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
I love that he still loves what he does.
Hahahaha!! I love this! I have taken to just finding an article explaining what the heck happened in the past 30 Marvel movies/shows and how that matters to whatever movie/show it is that I’m watching. I can’t imagine for these actors now difficult it must be to understand their complicated character motivation/behavior. I LOVE Magneto in X-Men, may have to dip back into the Marvel universe to see this one!