Just how exactly did Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis’s shocking plan to return to Middle-earth with the forthcoming The Lord of The Rings: The Hunt for Gollum come about? Let us imagine the duo kicking back in Jackson’s Hobbity New Zealand pad with a good batch of Longbottom Leaf, several cases of miruvor wine recently delivered from Lothlórien, and plenty of seed cakes and cold chicken. Conspicuous by their absence from the party, however, unless something distinctly fishy is going on, are Viggo Mortensen (AKA Aragorn, AKA Strider, AKA King of Arnor and Gondor) and Ian McKellen (AKA Gandalf, AKA Mithrandir, AKA that bloke with the pointy hat and the fireworks). Because neither seems to have been so much as consulted about the new movie before it was announced to the public.

If it turns out that The Hunt for Gollum really is about this minor segue – and honestly, how could it be about anything else? – it seems remarkable that nobody thought to tell McKellen and Mortensen what was going on, even if only to prepare them for the fact that, at 85 and 65 respectively, they might be better off priming themselves for replacement by younger actors. If that is the plan, the team behind this most unexpected new episode are probably regretting not communicating it earlier. For this week McKellen told the Times he would be quite up for starring as Gandalf once again – if he lives long enough.

This follows Mortensen telling GQ last month that he would also be interested in returning as Aragorn provided “I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth”. Both actors implied they had not been told anything about the new film before it was revealed to the public, with McKellen saying he had heard only “stirrings in Tolkien land”, while Mortensen said: “I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard. Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually.”