It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Sir Ian McKellan in the role of Gandalf, but according to The Lord of The Rings casting director Amy Hubbard, another legendary Brit almost won the role of the trilogy’s wise elder statesman. In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Hubbard confirmed the long-gestating rumors that David Bowie was almost cast in the role of Gandalf.
Hubbard revealed that although Bowie never auditioned for the role, Peter Jackson came up with the idea of casting the singer a few weeks into pre-production. Unfortunately, Bowie’s hectic schedule meant that he was unable to commit to the rigorous commitment required to shoot three films of such scale.
Still, the cast got their Bowie fix, when the singer gave them a private show during a break from filming. “I do believe that [David Bowie] went over and played for everybody at the Millennium party,” Hubbard revealed. “That would’ve been New Year’s Eve in the year 1999, which was when the films were being shot. He went over and entertained everybody, but he never auditioned. That’s for sure.”
Hubbard’s claim that Bowie never auditioned for the role of Gandalf is contrary to what actor Dominic Monaghan told The Huffington Post earlier this year. “I was at the Hubbard’s, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for Lord of the Rings,” Monaghan said. “As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in.”
While Monaghan never got confirmation, he assumed that Bowie was there to read for the role of Gandalf. “I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for,” Monaghan added.
Would Bowie—whose acting credits include Labyrinth, The Last Temptation Of Christ and The Prestige—have made a better Gandalf than McKellan? Sounds like a debate worthy of the holiday dinner table to us.
