Ian McKellen, who portrayed the great Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, has published a journal from his time filming the movies.
Tolkien’s Middle Earth is a world of deep mythology, and it seems like the lore surrounding Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is just as complex. Filming the entire journey in one epic year in the hills of New Zealand with practical effects and forced perspective seems almost as arduous as Frodo’s own voyage.
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Now, Ian McKellen is inviting you to dive even deeper into the lore with the journals that he kept during his time filming the movies, which began in January 2000.
McKellen shared the journal, “which today would be called a blog,” on Twitter, saying, “perhaps you’ll enjoy reading about those heady times,” referring to the “20 years ago” that he arrived in New Zealand to begin filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
20 years ago, I arrived New Zealand to begin filming “The Lord of the Rings.” I joined the cast on January 10, 2000. During that time, I kept a journal, which today would be called a blog Perhaps you’ll enjoy reading about those heady times: https://t.co/bJ6Nsqgwi2
— Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) January 10, 2020
While the website certainly isn’t eloquently designed (or fast), McKellen’s words are as poetic as ever. The blog posts are packed with all the wisdom of the wizard who he’s so famous for portraying, even including musings about his own castings. “How can I satisfy everyone’s imagined Gandalf? Simply, I can’t,” McKellen admits.
The journals even include some fun tidbits for fans of X-Men, as McKellen was still busy playing Magneto when production of Lord of the Rings began! You can also browse through some fan questions that McKellen answered about the series between 2000 and 2008.
This wealth of content that McKellen dropped on us appears to be as vast as the trilogies themselves. Happy reading!