Between 2012 and 2014 Peter Jackson followed up his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy by adapting JRR Tolkien’s prequel, The Hobbit.
The narrative saw Bilbo Baggins travelling with a group of dwarfs and Gandalf the Grey, to reclaim their homeland from Smaug the dragon.
With 13 actors playing the dwarfs it was always going to be hard for everyone to get a line.
Now John Callen who played Óin, the brother of Glóin, has revealed this frustration felt like being an extra rather than a core cast actor.
Speaking with YouTuber Lindsay Ellis, he said: “Even though we were in the core cast, we really did feel at some point that we were actually becoming the world’s highest paid extras.
“Whether it had to do with the fact that the studios had said, ‘Actually they’re all right, these dwarves, yes, but the real stories are the battle between Thorin and the evil orcs, it’s the story of the relationship between Radagast and Gandalf and finding Galadriel again and getting her help.’
“If that is what the studios were pushing for, then they certainly got what they wanted.
“What I think they missed out on was the heart that we started with.”
Appearing on Graham Norton’s BBC Radio 2 show, the host asked the actor: “Amazon [is] doing a TV series of Lord of the Rings.
“Now, isn’t that annoying, that there’s going to be another Gandalf in town?”
Sir Ian replied: “What do you mean, another Gandalf? I haven’t said yes because I haven’t been asked.
“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].”
