Ian McKellan Magneto
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Magneto. The very name is enough to send shivers up the spines of comic book lovers around the world. What person has read a comic book and not heard of Magneto, the master of magnetism?
But Magneto’s sphere of influence was increased drastically as of the turn of the century, thanks largely to one man and one trilogy of movies. The man is Ian McKellan, and the trilogy is called X-Men.
McKellan appeared in all three movies as Magneto, generally as the principal villain against which the X-Men were forced to battle (though he somewhat shared the spotlight in the second and third movies). And he did the job flawlessly. Despite being much older than the comics Magneto McKellan made the role his own, dominating his fellow mutants with nothing more than his commanding voice and simple yet brutal hand gestures.
(For those of you who don’t know, Magneto can manipulate metal. Any metal. He’s a powerful guy.)
McKellan had some of the best scenes in all three of the movies and delivered with such power and gravity that he’s the guy you love to hate.
And comic book fans, don’t worry: this isn’t the end for McKellan. If all goes well he’ll be returning as Magneto in a spin-off movie based entirely around the character.