The two British actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart from The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek are known worldwide and appeared together in front of the camera for X-Men. At the same time, the two friends are also big names in the theater scene and this led to the Gandalf actor giving the Star Trek star the worst tip of his career shortly before his TV breakthrough.
Ian McKellen wanted to keep Patrick Stewart away from Star Trek at all costs
Looking back you are always smarter. In this respect, after his six Middle-earth appearances, it is easy for Ian McKellen to mock those colleagues who rejected Gandalf. But the Lord of the Rings star gave his good friend Patrick Stewart some bad advice many years ago, which – fortunately – he didn’t follow: He Patrick Stewart strongly advised against taking on the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek.
20th Century Fox
Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen in X-Men
As Variety revealed, Patrick Stewart recalls his Star Trek cast as Picard in his newly released autobiography Making it so*. And Ian McKellen’s surprising backlash about it:
When I told him I would sign the contract, he signed me almost physically stopped from doing it. ‘No!’ he said. ‘You can’t do that. You must not. You have too much important theater work. You can’t throw that away for TV. You can not. No!’
Even though his friend’s opinion was important to him, Patrick Stewart decided to become captain of the Enterprise. Partly because he believed his Star Trek series would be canceled after Season 1. As we now know, that didn’t happen and the actor became one of the most famous names in the sci-fi universe as Picard. And Stewart is still happy to leave his old friend McKellen “Admit he was wrong and I was right.”
Podcast: The 15 best series starts in October on Netflix, Amazon and Co.
Do you need more fresh streaming tips? We show you the most exciting October series that start on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Co. in the monthly preview:
At this point you will find external content that complements the article. You can display it and hide it again with one click.
The 15 streaming highlights among the series in October include Marvel’s big return of Loki, the start of the latest The Walking Dead offshoot and lots of horror and sci-fi entertainment.
*. If you purchase through this link, we will receive a commission.