The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf was almost a film narrator

“The world has changed. I see it in the water, I feel it in the ground, I feel it in the air. Remember …”

These few words, from the first seconds of the mysterious Elf Galadriel’s Ring Partnership (played by Cate Blanchett), still resonate with all fans of the famous saga today as a call to adventure as the beginning of an epic. The first lines of the ancestral work.

Lasting 7 minutes and 30 seconds, this masterful introduction to the trilogy serves as a gateway for novices in the middle of the earth, but also as a contextual reminder to observe the long journey of one seal from its inception to meeting Bilbo Baggins.

With more amazing inventions by Peter Jackson than ever, the script is calmed by the actor’s charming tone. However, as we learn in the audio commentary of the film, the narration of this scene was entrusted to almost a completely different actor.

Indeed, it was Ian McKellen, the translator-magician Ian McKellen from the beginning, who came up with the vocal incarnation of the Lord of the Rings prologue:

“At one point there was talk of Gandalf telling a story and I begged them to do it.”Recalls Ian McKellen, who was clearly disappointed that he was elected. “I was told: you have enough to do in this film, you are not going to do more prologues. When you see this, I wonder if Galadriel thinks you know Cate Blanchett. It’s not the same. “

Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett were not the only two candidates Peter Jackson considered to narrate this sequence. As he reveals in the same audio commentary, Elijah Wood, who plays The Hobbit Frodo in the trilogy, also approached this role:

“It is difficult to express oneself in such a brilliant story”Ando he. “It was originally written for Frodo. But I’m glad Kate did it. Somehow it makes more sense.”

“Elves have been around for thousands of years”Then responds Sean Astin, nicknamed Sam Gemage. “He was there when it happened. If you had, there would be no stopping him. Frodo can only talk about this story after he lives.”

Once again, Samweis (Sam Sagas) deserves his nickname: history can only be told after he lives. Hence, as much as the narrative has to entrust the main story to the peripheral protagonist and, moreover, immortal, in order to maintain the entire suspension for central characters such as Gandalf or Frodo.

(Re-discover) Discover all the hidden details of the “Ring Partnership” …