“He told me about an offer to take over a leading part in Star Trek…”
Most Star Trek fans know real-life brothers of the knighthood Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen from their on-screen characters (frenemies Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto respectively) and their incredible performances in Marvel’s big-screen adaptations of the X-Men comics.
Despite Stewart and McKellen being classically trained Shakespearean actors, both lifelong friends surprisingly found a new group of fans thanks to the X-Men’s faithful followers. However, when McKellen wrote his tribute to the late actor on social media, he mentioned how his “first strong memory” of Stewart actually involved Star Trek, not Marvel.
McKellen wrote (via his official Instagram account): “We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in Star Trek. 'But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK.’”
McKellen, who first portrayed the magnetic Mutant Erik Lehnsherr in 2000’s X-Men movie alongside fellow castmate and friend Stewart, continued by writing:
“‘Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?’ Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marveled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (X-Men of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.”
McKellen also shared a photo of Stewart from the University of Huddersfield via the Instagram tribute, which Star Trek fans can view above.
As a lifelong Trekkie, I love that McKellen brought up Stewart stepping into Star Trek first, since Captain Jean-Luc Picard appeared on the small (1987-1994) and Silver (1994-2002) screens long before the actor suited up as the leader of the X-Men in director Bryan Singer’s 2000 Marvel movie masterpiece.
I was delighted when the news broke that both Stewart and McKellen would be reprising their beloved X-Men roles in December’s Avengers: Doomsday movie. However, it breaks my heart to know that the late Star Trek actor won’t be at the film’s premiere this winter, nor will he be able to see a final cut of the highly anticipated superhero flick with audiences.
For more Star Trek content and to remember Sir Patrick Stewart, please visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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