10 First Choices For Big Movie Roles (That Would Have Totally Sucked)
3. Sean Connery As Gandalf (Lord Of The Rings)
When the revelation of potential casting induces a snigger and an exclamation of "really?", it should be clear that it was never a good idea. That's certainly true of the bonkers notion that Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings franchise. New Line Cinema pulled out all of the stops for Connery, offering him $10m per movie and a share of the box office.
Connery said no to the role because he didn't understand it, allowing Ian McKellen to step up to the plate and deliver an iconic portrayal of the wizard in three Lord of the Rings adventures and three more Hobbit movies. It was part of a blockbuster one-two punch for Gandalf, who was also playing Magneto in Bryan Singer's growing X-Men franchise.
Although Connery has his place in history cemented as the best James Bond ever, he doesn't have the gravitas as an older man that McKellen does and so it's difficult to see him as a wise, almost ageless sorcerer. Either way, he missed out on a lot of money by turning down this part. The moral of the story, it seems, is that if someone offers you the chance to play Gandalf, YOU SHALL NOT PASS. Sorry.