Sir Ian McKellen, 86, recently answered a question that fans of fantasy fiction have long argued over:
Who would win in a fight between Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore?
McKellen played the bearded wizard, Gandalf, in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003. He later reprised his role in the director’s Hobbit trilogy, a prequel to the original series, from 2012 to 2014.
Highlights
- Sir Ian McKellen picked a side in the long-running argument over who would win in a fictional fight between Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore.
- He weighed in on David Bowie potentially being cast in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as Gandalf, a role that went to several other people before McKellen.
- The ‘X-Men’ star passed on the opportunity to play Dumbledore because of “nonsense” comments from the previous actor.
He also had a chance to play Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts in the original Harry Potter franchise, but decided against it.
Set to return as Gandalf in the upcoming Lord of the Rings spinoff, The Hunt for Gollum, McKellen picked a side in the longstanding debate.
Sir Ian McKellen believes Gandalf would beat Dumbledore in a fight
Image credits: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
On May 7, 2026, The Guardian published a Q&A interview with Sir Ian McKellen ahead of the release of his new movie, The Christophers, co-starring James Corden and Michaela Coel.
During the conversation, when asked who he thinks would win between Gandalf and Dumbledore, McKellen readily picked his own character.
Image credits: PicturehouseCinemas
“Why on earth would they be fighting?” he said. “But Gandy, of course, would win. The original wizard.”
According to J.R.R. Tolkien's lore, Gandalf is a Maia: an angelic, immortal spirit, sent from the Undying Lands of Valinor to Middle-Earth to guide and aid the free peoples against the Dark Lord, Sauron.
Over the years, McKellen has spoken fondly about the character and his experience on the set, even though he was not the casting department’s first choice. Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, and a few others reportedly passed on the role before McKellen landed it.
“They’re all coming out of the woodwork now, and I hope they feel silly,” McKellen joked about the actors in a 2023 Variety interview.
Ian McKellen addressed the reports of David Bowie’s involvement in The Lord of the Rings
Back in 2016, actor Dominic Monaghan, who played the hobbit Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck, told The Huffington Post that he saw David Bowie at the casting agency while auditioning for the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring.
Monaghan assumed that Bowie was there to read for Gandalf, although it has long been rumored that the music legend wanted to be the Elf Lord of Rivendell, Elrond, played by Hugo Weaving.
Image credits: New Line Cinema / Warner Bros.
Later that year, Lord of the Rings casting director Amy Hubbard told The Huffington Post that Bowie did have a “very quick conversation” regarding a role. However, he was “unavailable” for the filming schedule.
When prompted about it by The Guardian, McKellen admitted that while he “never managed to persuade” Peter Jackson to confirm which actors turned down “the wizard part of a lifetime,” he believes Bowie would have brought the character to life differently.
Image credits: New Line Cinema
“For all Gandalf’s acquaintance with magic and the supernatural, I was most attracted to the old boy’s humanity – the sort of hirsute tramp of a geezer who you might hope to meet traipsing through Middle-Earth’s highways and byways,” he said.
“Perhaps Bowie’s striking looks and voice would have stressed the more supernatural side of his nature and appearance.”
Ian McKellen previously revealed why he turned down the role of Dumbledore
Image credits: ColbertLateShow
After Richard Harris, who played Headmaster Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies, passed away in 2002, Ian McKellen was offered the role. However, he turned it down, and it went to Michael Gambon instead.
While McKellen joked in interviews at the time that he passed on the opportunity because he had already played “the original” wizard, he revealed the real reason for his decision a few years later.
Shortly before his demise, Harris had called McKellen, Derek Jacobi, and Kenneth Branagh, also a Harry Potter star, “brilliant but passionless actors.”
“Seeing as one of the last things [Harris] did publicly was say what a dreadful actor he thought I was, it would not have been appropriate for me to take over his part,” he said in 2007, according to a Vanity Fair report. “It would have been unfair.”
“When they called me up and asked if I would be interested in being in the Harry Potter films, they didn’t say in what part,” McKellen said on BBC’s HARDtalk a decade later. “I worked out what they were thinking, and I couldn’t … I couldn’t take over the part from an actor who I’d known didn’t approve of me.”
In 2022, a feature documentary titled The Ghost of Richard Harris revealed that, alongside Dumbledore, Harris was also offered the role of Gandalf. The first film of both franchises came out within a month of each other in 2001.
He chose to play Dumbledore, as “he didn’t want to spend all that time in New Zealand,” where Jackson filmed his movies, according to his son, Jared Harris.
"Not even a contest." The internet weighed in on the Gandalf vs. Dumbledore debate as Ian McKellen gave his answer
