If you’re a die-hard Harry Potter fan, who has watched all seven movies in the franchise, you’d probably be aware that in the first two films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the role of Albus Dumbledore was portrayed by Richard Harris.
Following his death in October 2002, however, Warner Bros. was on the hunt for his replacement, which reportedly led them to approach Ian McKellen for the part — and it wasn’t hard to see why they were eager to get him on board.
In 1999, the actor had signed on to star as Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, with the first installment entering theatres in 2001. And while McKellen would have probably made a great fit to play another wizard in Harry Potter, he ultimately turned the offer down.
Why Did Ian McKellen Turn Down ‘Harry Potter’?
With Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan set to begin production just months after Harris’ death, casting directors were trying to reach out to all the actors they thought would be suitable for the role in the hopes that there’d be some interest sparked by the other party.
And let’s not forget that the first two Harry Potter films had already amassed close to $1.9 billion at the box office, so whichever actor was ready to sign on to replace Harris’ position would evidently be joining an enormous blockbuster franchise.
In an interview with BBC’s Hard Talk, McKellen explained that the only reason he didn’t sign on for the follow-up film was that he didn’t think Harris would’ve approved of his performance playing the character.
His choice of words was made on the basis that Harris had previously disapproved of McKellen’s work, calling “technically brilliant, but passionless.”
This led McKellen to say: “When they called me up and said would I be interested in being in the Harry Potter films, they wouldn't say what part but I worked out what they were thinking. I couldn't take over the part from an actor who I know disapproved of me.”
“Sometimes, when I see the posters of Mike Gambon, the actor who gloriously plays Dumbledore, I think sometimes it is me.”
As mentioned, Gambon ended up taking over the role, and to say that he shares a striking resemblance to McKellen would be an understatement — the two could quite literally be considered twins with how much resemblance they share to one another.
Gambon went on to star in all of the remaining Harry Potter films before the franchise concluded in 2011, but one certainly wonders how well McKellen would have done playing the character given that casting directors had already hoped he would sign on for 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
To be fair, though, The Lord of the Rings franchise was just as popular as Harry Potter, seeing that its first installment with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring grossed an incredible $800 million at the box office, The Two Towers made $900 million while the third flick, The Return of the King, made another $1.1 billion.
What’s crazy is that McKellen almost didn’t play Gandalf due to prior commitments he had after signing his deal to star as Magneto in 2000’s X-Men.
The filming dates had changed ahead of production, which had created problems for the 81-year-old seeing that he had already been in talks to sign the dotted line to also appear in TLOTR.
During a chat with IGN, the legendary star gushed: “Before Peter Jackson asked me to play Gandalf, Bryan Singer asked me to play Magneto. That came first.”
“I had to call Peter up and say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t play Gandalf because my initial commitment has changed its dates.’”
Fortunately for McKellen, the X-Men director ended up calling Jackson, who was directing TLOTR, to make it clear that the actor’s filming dates would not be clashing with filming for the other movie — in other words, Singer didn’t want McKellen to pass on such a huge franchise, so he managed to work things around that ended up working in everyone’s favor.
Jackson had McKellen as Gandalf and Singer had him as Magneto.
“It’s only because Bryan Singer is a gentleman and talked to Peter Jackson and they agreed quite unofficially, nothing in writing, that Singer would get me out of X-Men in time to do Fellowship of the Ring that I was able to do both parts,” McKellen reflected. “It’s just a fluke and it tickles me, really.”