It was recently announced that both Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are returning as Magneto and Professor X in the upcoming Marvel mutant adventure X-Men: Days of Future Past.

As McKellen makes the press rounds in support of his return as Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, he's also offering his thoughts on reprising Erik Lehnsherr for this upcoming sequel.

"What a gas! I mean, Patrick Stewart and I have just been playing "Waiting for Godot" throughout England and in the West End of London. So, we've stayed in touch. We can't believe it [laughs]. I thought these were Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy's parts, but -- no, no -- we're back. We'll give them a run for their money."

The actor doesn't know too much about the story, despite it being based on a popular comic book run from the early 80s.

"I mean, I haven't read the script, so I don't know how much we've got to do. But, to be back in that world, and for Bryan Singer to be doing it -- with all the success he's had in the meantime -- it's wonderful. Wonderful."

Ian McKellen also commented on Michael Fassbender's turn as Magneto in X-Men: First Class.

"I thought he was exactly that: first class. Excellent. [Laughs] I thought he was better than me. But, we weren't quite playing the same character because he was so much younger than me. And the scope of Magneto, one day a Jewish actor will play it. Clearly, he's Jewish. We first meet him in at Auschwitz and there's scope for all sorts of people to pay Magneto. But, I was just the lucky guy who got to play him first."