Christopher Lee says he will return to his role as Saruman IF he gets the phone call. He was speaking to Empire magazine about Saruman, Wizards and Middle Earth happenings in general.
Although Saruman doesn’t feature in The Hobbit he could well play a major part in Film 2 as he explains:
“Somewhere, somehow, and it was never actually explained, Saruman turns and it’s probably the Palantír (the wizard’s crystal ball thingy) that makes Saruman realise that if Sauron can do this, why can’t I do it and Saruman wants to become The Lord Of The Rings himself. I’d be interested in seeing how that transition from good to evil occurred and, yes, of course I would return to the role if I was asked.”
Its great news to here he’s willing to reprise the role despite the fall out over axed scenes from the Lord Of The Rings and hopefully the phone call won’t be long in coming.
If Del Toro and Co. do make the call the added bonus will be having one of the worlds recognised authorities of Middle Earth aboard to help “fill the gaps” for Hobbit 2.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Great!
That would be divine!
YAY!!!
Good news. He’s willing to return and PJ and Co have already commented that they’ll be contacting all original cast members (as and when needed)
So this is very good news.
This will be great. He is a fine actor!
I really hope they start filming soon. I hate to be the devil’s advocate here…but Christopher Lee is old. I love him. He’s a great actor. But there is a real chance he could die before this gets made.
Hurry up writers! Get the story finished so Christopher Lee can be in the movie!
This is, of course, very good news. But a better question to ask than if Lee would return is if John Rhys-Davies would be condidered/asked/accept to play Gloin, father of Gimli. The problem is that Rhys-Davies was not at all happy getting into make-up for Gimli, and would probably be very reluctant to do so again.
I’m of course happy for this, however, what if, instead of focusing on making a good movie, they keep on trying to get the original cast together. Hopefully they’ll do both.
Yeah, they’ll do both for sure.
I couldn’t imagine anybody else for this role. Amazing!
This is great!! Nobody else could be Saruman and a sequal that doesn’t include some explanation of the White Council, its members and their designated role in Middle Earth would be somehow crippled!!
Mr. Lee has since backtracked and now says New Zealand is too far to travel at is age but would like to do the voice of Smaug.