Gandalf, Magneto, and Mr Holmes...

The great British actor Sir Ian McKellan has performed all sorts of roles over several decades of his magnificent career, on stage and screen.

For New Zealanders he is most well-known as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, and McKellen was a welcome addition to the New Zealand arts and cultural landscape for several years as he spent a lot of time in Wellington and elsewhere around the country while filming those six movies with Sir Peter Jackson.

Now this year Sir Ian will be taking on crime fiction's most famous fictional character: the immortal Sherlock Holmes. Recently portrayed by the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Jonny Lee Miller, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation is seen in a different light in the upcoming film. The new movie explores Holmes' final case, as a retired, beekeeping 90-something-year-old in the countryside, McKellan plays the lead role in Mr Holmes. Today McKellan shared the official teaser trailer for the upcoming film on his Facebook page. You can view that here.