Sir Ian McKellen isn’t mincing words when it comes to Chloe Zhao’s upcoming Shakespeare drama Hamnet.
In a candid interview with The Times, the legendary stage and screen actor admitted he finds the film’s central premise hard to buy. The movie, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling 2020 novel, imagines that William Shakespeare’s grief over the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet, directly inspired the writing of Hamlet. But McKellen isn’t convinced the Bard’s creative genius can be traced so neatly to one personal tragedy.
“I’m not especially interested in guessing where Shakespeare’s imagination came from,” McKellen said, suggesting that reducing his artistry to family grief feels overly simplistic. While the historical link between Hamnet’s 1596 burial and the play’s debut four years later has long fueled academic debate, McKellen appears skeptical of turning theory into cinematic fact.
The Lord of the Rings icon also took issue with how the film portrays Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway. In Hamnet, Hathaway—played by Jessie Buckley and referred to as Agnes—is depicted as largely unfamiliar with theater. McKellen questioned the plausibility of that portrayal, noting that it strains credibility to imagine the wife of England’s most famous playwright having little exposure to the stage world.
His comments carry particular weight given his decades-long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. Directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao and starring Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, Hamnet has already generated awards buzz—but McKellen’s pointed remarks are sure to spark debate among theater purists and film fans alike.
