A man who went out on a birthday bar crawl dressed as Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings was stunned when he ran into none other than Sir Ian McKellen.
The 83-year-old thespian famously portrayed the sage wizard in Peter Jackson’s hit trilogy of film adaptations, later reprising the role for the director’s Hobbit trilogy.
The serendipitious meeting occurred on 13 April when Ben Coyles, a 22-year-old music student, was out celebrating his birthday on the streets of Bristol.
McKellen was in the city as part of the touring production of the pantomime Mother Goose. The show, which also starred comedian John Bishop, has just concluded a 145-date nationwide tour.
“So it was really bizarre, it was my 22nd birthday, and we were on a pub crawl,” the reveller recalled, per Bristol Post.
“Me and all my mates were walking down the street and I heard behind me ‘do you want to meet the real Gandalf?’ I didn’t recognise him immediately then I was like ‘OH MY GOD IT’S SIR IAN MCKELLEN!’”
The meeting took place on the city’s Corn Street, and was captured on video by one of Coyles’ friends.
“Everybody said ‘what on earth is going on?!’ He asked me how old I was and said ‘happy birthday’ and shook my hand,” he added.
“I was flabbergasted, I had no idea what to do or say. We had zero idea that he was walking down that street. If I was 10 to 20 metres ahead of him it wouldn’t have happened, the planets aligned. He’s a really lovely sound bloke, an excellent guy, nice, down to earth and humble and I’d like to buy him a drink.”
McKellen’s Lord of the Rings co-star Elijah Wood, who played Frodo in the Oscar-winning fantasy films, recently shared his thoughts on the new wave of Lord of the Rings remakes.
After Warner Bros announced back in February that they were set to re-adapt JRR Tolkien’s novels, fans of the series voiced their frustration with the idea on social media.
