'The Hobbit' scoop: Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis on board

Fear not, Hobbit-watchers: The band is getting back together. On the heels of Friday's announcement that Elijah Wood will play Frodo Baggins in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit, EW has confirmed that Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis will each reprise their roles from the Lord of the Rings films as, respectively, the wizard Gandalf the Grey and the creature Gollum. Both actors had long been assumed by fans to be on board the production, though the unexplained delay in their official casting created some doubts. Both characters are critically important to J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit tale; Gandalf recruits the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) to join a quest to reclaim a dragon's treasure, and Gollum possesses a powerful ring that comes to play a central role in both The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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