Sir Ian McKellen at 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' premiere
Ian McKellen believes that The Hobbit franchise has been so successful because they are about ‘what it takes to be a good person.’
McKellen is back on the big screen as Gandalf next week as The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released and brings Peter Jackson’s second Middle Earth trilogy to a triumphant close. This will be the sixth movie in which we have seen the popular actor take on the role of the wizard.
So far, the franchise has grossed almost $2 billion at the global box office, and McKellan believes that it is because the movies are more than just about good vs. evil.
Speaking to the BBC on the red carpet in London last night, the actor said: "Maybe [the movies] endure because they're not about evil just for evil's sake, they're not about frightening and exciting things just to thrill the audience.
"They're actually about something important. They're about what it takes to be a good person, really."
We were introduced to McKellen as Gandalf back in 2001 with the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and it is a role that he has returned to over and over again in the last decade, and it remains the most recognisable character of his acting career.
And while Battle of the Five Armies is set to bring The Hobbit to a close, McKellen believes that this may not be the end of adventures in Middle Earth.
He continued: "I was told by Peter, in 2001, that that was the end, that it was all over. Here we are 13 years later. So I don't believe necessarily this is the end of the journey."
2014 has already been a hugely successful year for the actor as X-Men: Days of Future Past was both a critical and commercial smash when it was released earlier this summer. The movie saw McKellen reunite with the likes of Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman as he reprised the role of Magneto.
The movie went on to gross in excess of $746 million at the global box office and is currently the fourth highest grossing movie of 2014, behind Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Maleficent.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released 12th December.
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