(Picture: Bob Thomas/Getty Images)

He played a villainous Goblin king in Labyrinth, but it seems that David Bowie really wanted to play a wizard too.

That’s according to Lord of the Rings star Dominic Monaghan, who claims that director Peter Jackson turned down the music icon for the part of Gandalf – and he spotted him in a casting agency’s office after Monaghan successfully auditioned for the role of Merry Brandybuck.

He told Huffington Post: ‘I was at the Hubbard’s, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for Lord of the Rings.’

After the audition had ended, Monaghan was asked to give feedback – and it’s at this point that he spotted Bowie.




‘As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. And I’m assuming he read for Gandalf. I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for.

Bowie as Gandalf. Can you see it? (Picture: Reuters)

‘He may have read for something else, but I’m a huge David Bowie fan, and I was lucky enough to know his son now so just seeing him in person was pretty special to me.’

Bowie as Gandalf, can you even imagine it?

It’s not quite clear why Jackson turned down Bowie for the role, but a long-standing rumour has suggested that he felt Bowie would be too famous for the project.

The claim comes only a short time after it was reported that Labyrinth is set to receive a long-belated sequel, with Guardians of the Galaxy writer Nicole Perlman on script duties.

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