Rotten Tomatoes recently spoke with actor Ian McKellan on reprising his role of Gandalf in The Hobbit, and he revealed that he'll be portraying an earlier version of the wizard, Gandalf the Grey.

"Grey Gandalf is my favourite," he told us. "Peter Jackson's too, we always preferred Gandalf the Grey. Peter liked him because he got down and dirty. He slept in the hedgerows; he was closer to the earth and not quite so spiritual. He's also funnier -- he's got more variety to him. We thought there was more scope in that Gandalf."

The Hobbit will be hitting theaters in December 2011 with The Hobbit Sequel to follow in 2012.