Ian McKellan had an opportunity to play a major part in both of them but ultimately turned Harry Potter down.
In the early 2000s, two major fantasy franchises started up, The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter films.
In a recent interview, McKellan said that after the death of Richard Harris the Harry Potter producers called him and offered him a role.
Figuring out that they wanted him to take over as Dumbledore, McKellan turned them down, not because he didn’t want to play another wizard, but because he knew that Harris didn’t care for him as an actor.