Wonderful news today is Disney announcing Sir Ian McKellen cast as Cogsworth in Disney’s live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast, as was announced through Variety.
In the 1991 animated and Oscar-nominated film, Cogsworth was the Beast’s loyal butler who was turned into a clock by a curse that transformed all the living beings in the Beast’s castle.
READ MORE: Beauty and the Beast official cast
McKellen will be joining Emma Watson (Belle), Dan Stevens (Beast), Luke Evans (Gaston), Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts), Josh Gad (Le Fou), Kevin Kline (Maurice), and Audra McDonald (Garderobe).
Ian McKellen is widely known for two characters he’s played in several major motion pictures; he played the wizard Gandalf in both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy, which was released about 10 or so years after LOTR. His other widely known role was as Eric Lensherr aka Magneto in the X-Men movies, opposite Patrick Stewart’s Professor X character.
READ MORE: The Hobbit Red Carpet and Press Conference Interviews
He has a long list of credits in both stage and screen, including small screen, and his addition to the cast of this film is getting me even more excited to watch it.
Production is slated to start later this year and scheduled for a March 17, 2017 release.
via Variety.