The legendary actor, who got his start in productions of Shakespeare’s plays, thinks something doesn’t add up about Chloe Zhao’s spin on the Bard’s origins.

Ian McKellen doesn’t ‘quite get’ Hamnet

The legendary actor, who got his start in productions of Shakespeare's plays, thinks something doesn't add up about Chloe Zhao's spin on the Bard's origins.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

EW's editorial guidelines

February 18, 2026 12:50 a.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Ian McKellen in London in 2022. Credit:

- Ian McKellen disagrees with several aspects of the film *Hamnet*, based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell, which concerns itself with the life of William Shakespeare.

- "I don't quite get it," McKellen told *The Times*. "I'm not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare's imagination came from, but it certainly didn't just come from family life."

- McKellen got his start performing in plays like 'Richard II' and 'King Lear' with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London.

Ian McKellen can speed through *Richard III *— no problem. He's also played King Lear *and *the Danish prince. But Chloe Zhao's *Hamnet*, which imagines the creative origins of William Shakespeare's *Hamlet*? Something's not clicking.

"I don't quite get it," the Tony and Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor confessed on Saturday in an interview with *The Times*. "I'm not very interested in trying to work out where Shakespeare's imagination came from, but it certainly didn't just come from family life," he explained.

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska/FOCUS FEATURES

Adapted from the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell, *Hamnet *dramatizes an important event in the life of William Shakespeare: the death of his son Hamnet at age 11. The book and O'Farrell and Zhao's screenplay propose that this event inspired the Bard's creation of one of literature's greatest tragedies, *Hamlet*.

O'Farrell didn't spin the notion out of whole cloth; rather, it descends from a long and fractious scholarly debate that acknowledges the fundamentals — Hamnet's burial in 1596 and *Hamlet*'s first staging four years later — but has never been able to reconcile their relationship to one another.

Ian McKellen says Magneto 'destroys' New Jersey in 'Avengers: Doomsday'

Paul Mescal is a grieving William Shakespeare in 'Hamnet' trailer

McKellen owes much of his early career success to performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company out of London's Royal National Theatre. Now, he adds his authoritative voice to that debate.

"As *Hamnet* races towards the finishing line, as far as Oscars are concerned, it's likely to repeat the success of *Shakespeare in Love*, which had odd views as to how plays get put on," he said. "But then Shakespeare's perhaps the most famous person who ever lived, so of course there is some interest in what he looked like, what his relationship with his family was. And we can’t know."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.*****

Still, there are several aspects of *Hamnet *that McKellen can't abide. First, that theater was somehow foreign to Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, who was sometimes called Agnes, as she is in *Hamnet*.

"The idea Anne Hathaway has never seen a play before? It's improbable, considering what her husband did for a living. And she doesn't seem to know what a play is! I think there are a few doubts of probability," McKellen said.

*Hamnet* stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, and also features Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, and Noah Jupe. Buckley, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, is in contention for Best Actress at the Oscars, where the film is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and more.

McKellen returns as the X-Men's Magneto in *Avengers: Doomsday* in December, and, in 2027, *The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum* sees the actor's wise wizard Gandalf rematerialize.**

- Period Dramas

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Period”