Now that actor Ian McKellan has officially been announced as part of the cast for Bryan Singer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, the 73 year old is sharing the details behind his return to the role of the older Magneto. “What a gas! I mean, Patrick Stewart and I have been 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],” McKellan told Huffington Post after being asked to reprise his role. “I thought these were [Michael] Fassbender and [James] McAvoy’s parts, but – no, no – we’re back,” he added. “We’ll give them a run for their money. 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 to be doing it – with all the success he’s had in the meantime – it’s wonderful. Wonderful.”

While the veteran performer did make a few jokes about schooling the young McAvoy and Fassbender, he had nothing but good things to say about Fassbender’s portrayal of the younger version of Magneto. “No. No. 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.”

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is scheduled to hit theaters on July 18th 2014. In the meantime McKellan will show up in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ as Gandalf.