Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is the quintessential British Christmas classic and has been adapted countless times for stage, television, and cinema. It was truly about time that Ian McKellen finally got to star in it — hard to believe he hadn’t done so before. In the film “Ebenezer – A Christmas Story,” which opens in German theaters on November 12, McKellen portrays Jacob Marley, the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge’s late business partner (Johnny Depp in his first major Hollywood role since his divorce drama with ex-wife Amber Heard). Director Ti West describes McKellen’s character as “a pretty nasty guy,” but he plays him in a way that somehow makes him sympathetic, even though you really shouldn’t like him — it’s truly brilliant.
Direct link | German trailer for “Ebenezer – A Christmas Story”
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Such characters are McKellen’s specialty, and as fate would have it, he returns to a similar role on the big screen about a month later: in “Avengers: Doomsday” (opening December 16) he again portrays the super-villain/mutant freedom fighter Magneto, alongside Patrick Stewart and several other members of the original “X-Men” cast from 2000. The newest Marvel blockbuster brings together the “X-Men” characters for the first time, before a likely 2028 reboot with younger actors. In “Doomsday” there are so many megastars on screen that it’s hard to imagine any of them getting more than a few minutes of screen time.
Direct link | German trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday”
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Beyond Blockbusters: smaller queer films
We can eagerly anticipate a much larger McKellen role around Christmas 2027: in New Zealand, filming for “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum” is drawing to a close. In it he again steps into the robes of the wizard Gandalf, the role that made him an international star in 2001 — at the tender age of 62. The film, directed by Gollum actor Andy Serkis and produced by Peter Jackson, also reunites him with Elijah Wood as Frodo and with the openly queer Lee Pace as Elven king Thranduil.
It’s almost remarkable that, amid all these blockbuster projects, McKellen still finds time for a few smaller works. But he clearly also needed space to explore his queer side. Recently he appeared at the London Film Festival in “Frank and Percy,” an adaptation of a stage play in which he had previously shared the stage with co-star Roger Allam. The two portray two older singles — McKellen as a gay man separated from his partner (Stephen Fry), and Allam as a widowed heterosexual man. They regularly meet in the park to walk their dogs, and what begins as a friendship gradually deepens. When the film will screen here remains to be announced.
McKellen as a Bisexual Painter
The same goes for Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” a wry dark comedy featuring McKellen at his sharpest. He plays the aging bisexual painter Julian Sklar, whose heyday has long since passed, living alone in a London house cluttered with countless objects that urgently need tidying. To help, he plans to hire an assistant. But his scheming adult children want to swap in a talented forger to secure a hefty inheritance. “The Christophers” lets McKellen fully unleash the comedic talent he rarely gets to flaunt in blockbuster fare — much as he did in the brilliantly caustic TV series “Vicious” (2013–2016) opposite Derek Jacobi, another British gay icon.
Early Coming Out, Activist Since
McKellen came out in 1988 — a direct response to a new law introduced by the Thatcher government that year. It prohibited local authorities and schools from “promoting” homosexuality or presenting same-sex relationships as a legitimate family form, much as is seen today in many queerphobic countries. The celebrated stage actor came out during a live BBC debate and, in 1989, co-founded Stonewall, the UK’s queer rights organization. He has remained a tireless advocate for LGBTQ+ causes and, despite everything, was knighted by the Queen in 1991. Since then he has carried the honor of speaking his title: Sir.
The Great Shift in Queer Storytelling
In an interview with the Financial Times, the star reflected on the enormous changes in how queer stories are handled. “When I acted in ‘Bent’ — Martin Sherman’s 1979 play about the tragedy of gay men in Nazi Germany — it was a gay theatre piece that loudly told the truth to the world. When I also performed in Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Edward II’ in the 1970s, it was the first play ever about a gay man.”
“Today, in ‘Gods and Monsters’ (1998), this film was based on a book written by a gay man, directed by a gay man, and the entire crew was queer. It was our story. We wanted to honor a man who came out in 1930s Hollywood — truly a hero of gay liberation. And Julian Sklar in ‘The Christophers’ is now simply bi by coincidence, but entirely natural. Maybe cinema has grown up.”
Direct link | English original trailer for “The Christophers”
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Living Legend
And just like the fictional Julian Sklar, Ian McKellen himself has long since become a living legend — especially for his central role in Peter Jackson’s globally beloved The Lord of the Rings trilogy. “I keep hearing from grandparents, parents, and children that they watch all three films back-to-back every Christmas,” McKellen says. “It’s an annual ritual. And to be in the middle of their Christmas celebrations as part of it — isn’t that wonderful?”
And it will be wonderfully familiar to see him again on the big screen next year in this role. And, one hopes, for many years to come.
