Sir Ian Mckellen Injury Forced 'King Lear' Cancellation, but He Entertained Audience for 90 Minutes Anyway

Theatergoers expecting to see Sir Ian McKellen perform King Lear today were treated to a unique [...]

Theatergoers expecting to see Sir Ian McKellen perform King Lear today were treated to a unique experience.

The King Lear performance was unfortunately canceled after McKellen injured his leg trying to catch a train to get to the theater. But McKellen wasn't going to let the audience go home disappointed. He sat on stage and spoke with the crowd and performed some Shakespearean scenes and even got into character as Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.

"Went to see Sir Ian McKellen as King Lear, he injured his leg on the way there so the show was cancelled but he sat and talked to us for 90 minutes," blogger Holly Brockwell shared on Instagram along with a photo of McKellen on stage. "Absolutely incredible. He answered questions, told us stories, Gandalfed twice and acted several Shakespeare scenes off the top of his head. Experience of a lifetime!"

McKellen is a celebrated theater actor with six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, and four Drama Desk Awards. He's also been celebrated in film and television with a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BIF Award, two Saturn Awards, and two Critics' Choice Awards, as well as two Oscar nominations, four BAFTA nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations.

McKellen's best-known roles are those of Magneto in the X-Men movies and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy. He played Magneto in the first three X-Men movies and seemingly brought his time as the character to an end with an appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past. There is still a chance that he may reprise his role as Gandalf for Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings television series.

"I haven't said yes because I haven't been asked," the actor continued. "But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I'm not too old [yet]."

What do you think of McKellen's impromptu performance? Would you like to see McKellen return as Gandalf in the Amazon Lord of the Rings series? Let us know in the comments section!

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