Ian McKellen–excuse me, SIR Ian McKellan, though technically here in the states we don’t need to recognize foreign nobility titles but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due–might be coming back to reprise his Gandalf role in the upcoming Hobbit.

Now, I know we could have some semantic discussion as to whether or not it’s his role or his roles.  Suffice it to say he’ll be coming back as Gandalf the Grey, and won’t be getting bleached until later in the series so he’ll be dingy throughout.

You may have heard him say that he “doesn’t want to play Gandalf” again and took it to mean the worst possible thing ever, that he won’t be back to handle the role of Gandalf.  But as it turns out, what he meant was that he didn’t want to play “Gandalf” again but in SOME OTHER MOVIE.  He doesn’t want to, for example, play Dumbledore or Merlin.  He’s played Gandalf, as far as he’s concerned he’s played the BEST wizard role, and he means to stick with it.

This is frankly great news.  McKellen did an amazing job with Gandalf, even though I was only occasionally happy with the Lord of the Rings series, and I’m very much looking forward to having that man back.