‘I couldn’t take over from an actor I know disapproved of me’: ‘Harry Potter’s Michael Gambon owed Dumbledore role to Ian McKellen

Sir Michael Gambon has passed away at the age of 82, joining the sadly growing list of much-loved Harry Potter cast members who have left us. That includes Gambon’s predecessor in the role of Professor Dumbledore, Richard Harris, who died at 72 in 2002, shortly before the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, his final film role. Harris’ death left producers scrambling to replace him as the Hogwarts headmaster, with Gambon winning the coveted part.

Those well-versed in the behind-the-scenes world of the Harry Potter movies may be aware, however, that Gambon was not the first choice for the recast role. Warner Bros. and the team behind the films initially turned to another actor who had already made their mark as a different bearded literary wizard from a fantasy world concocted by a British author. However, the thespian in question turned down the offer, leaving Gambon to claim Albus for his own.

Ian McKellen was Harry Potter producers’ first choice to replace Richard Harris as Dumbledore

Yes, it’s true, Sir Ian McKellen came close to playing both Gandalf and Dumbledore, despite the two characters being very close analogs of each other. Due to the fast turnaround of the movies’ production, Gambon was cast as the new Dumbledore just four months after Harris’ death from Hodgkin’s Disease in fall 2022. During that time, producers reached out to McKellen to gauge his interest in snapping up the role.

McKellen was not interested, however, but not for any reason you might think. It turned out he was all too aware that Harris had not been a fan of his as an actor, and McKellen thought it would be poor taste for him to replace Harris in the role, given that the latter probably wouldn’t have agreed with the choice. As McKellen told BBC’s HardTalk (via Hello!)

“When [Richard] died – he played Dumbledore the wizard [while] I played the real wizard [Gandalf], of course – [the producers] called me up and said, ‘Would I be interested in being in the Harry Potter films?’ They didn’t say what part. But I worked out what they were thinking. I couldn’t take over the part from an actor who I know disapproved of me.”

So what had Harris said about McKellen? The Gladiator actor had previously described the Lord of the Rings icon as “technically brilliant, but passionless” in his acting skills during their younger days. As far as is known, Harris either had no problem with Gambon as an actor, or at least did not make his feelings known publicly, so Sir Michael was free to don Harris’ fake beard. Famously, Gambon elected to play Dumbledore with a slight Irish accent, despite Harris choosing not to use his own natural Irish accent in his own performance.

While most would likely disagree with Harris’ assessment of McKellen’s skills, his decision to let Gambon have the Dumbledore role definitely worked out best for the Harry Potter saga.