Will the next chapter in the cinematic adaptation of Tolkien’s fantasy series be titled “The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the Wizard”?

It may well be if the filmmakers succeed in bringing Ian McKellen back as Gandalf. McKellen, who portrayed the beloved grey pilgrim in the first three films as well as the subsequent “Hobbit” movies, has revealed that there is already magic at work behind the scenes to bring him back.

“I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him,” McKellen told British magazine the Big Issue . “When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”

McKellen, who is 85 years old, recently experienced significant physical harm including a chipped vertebrae after falling during a stage performance of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2” in the U.K. The incident earlier this summer in London’s Noël Coward Theatre forced the actor to cut short his run as buffoonish kingly companion Falstaff, with only the padded costume he was wearing preventing him from being more seriously injured after he tripped on stage and fell into the audience.

“I’m left feeling physically weak, which I’m doing exercises for,” McKellen said of the accident. “And, of course, it’s emotionally challenging. We all stumble throughout our lives, it’s just when you reach my age you can’t always bounce back as easily.”

“I’m just trying to convince myself it was an accident [rather than the result of my age],” he says. “I’m usually working or preparing to work, I’ve been doing a little bit of that, considering what might be the best plan. I’m going to take the rest of the year off. Not because I need to, just because I want to.”