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McKellen told BBC News, "I've resisted offers to play John Falstaff [but] Robert Icke's ingenious adaptation was irresistible."

Ian McKellen has played many Shakespearean roles, including Richard III, Coriolanus, and King Lear. His most recent Shakespeare performance was as Hamlet at Theatre Royal, Windsor in 2021. On screen, he is perhaps best known for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He is a six-time Olivier Award recipient and was Oscar-nominated for Gods and Monsters and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — not to mention that McKellen has been nominated for all major acting awards. He was knighted in 1991.

Known for his innovative stagings and adaptations of classic plays, Icke became the youngest recipient of an Olivier Award for Best Director for Oresteia in 2016, and he also received Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards. He directed Andrew Scott as Hamlet in a production broadcast by the BBC, and which transferred to New York (with Alex Lawther taking over the lead role). More recently, he received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for The Doctor, which played at the Almeida Theatre, in the West End, on tour, and in Adelaide and New York.

What to watch for

• Henry IV: Part 2 features the famous line “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
• Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths, Antony Sher, and Simon Russell Beale all played Falstaff, a plum role for character actors.
• Falstaff is the star of his own comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor.
• Falstaff is thought to be inspired by the real-life Sir John Oldcastle, a friend of the future Henry V who was eventually executed for heresy and treason. Another influence is Sir John Falstof, a soldier who fought in the Hundred Years’ War.
• Ian McKellen first appeared in Henry IV as an undergraduate at Cambridge, playing the ancient Justice Shallow. Derek Jacobi played Hal, and renowned director John Barton staged the production.