Q&A: Sir Ian McKellen Takes On The Prisoner's Number One Tormenter

From his extensive Shakespearean roots to his knockout *X-Men *and Lord of the Rings roles as Magneto and Gandalf, Sir Ian McKellen boasts a prowess so refined that he's now playing a role, The Prisoner's power-hungry villain Number Two, previously inhabited by not one actor but 17. Although McKellen later backs off the reveal, it's nevertheless obvious that he acted as one of the prime movers behind AMC and ITV's reboot of Patrick McGoohan's surreal '60s series. McKellen's participation as Number Two enticed Jim Caviezel to step into McGoohan's giant-sized shoes as the heroic Number Six. Sir Ian says that it was neither McGoohan nor the original series that prompted his involvement, but Bill Gallagher's superlative script, which interrogates everything from psychiatry and domesticity to surveillance and technology.