Ian McKellen Joins Live-Action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as Cogsworth

If you're Ian McKellen and you've made a career bringing iconic characters like Magneto and Gandalf to life, where do you go next? Apparently, you sign on to play Cogsworth in Disney's live-action version of Beauty and the Beast.

Variety reported that McKellen would join Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad and Emma Thompson in Beauty and the Beast. The film is set to hit theaters on March 17, 2017.

When I saw that McKellen had been cast in Beauty and the Beast, I was surprised to see that he would play Cogsworth. In the Disney animated version of the story, Law & Order star Jerry Orbach voiced Cogsworth — McKellen appears much closer in frame to the candlestick-esque frame of Orbach and Lumiere than Cogsworth.

Beauty and the Beast is next in Disney's growing line of live-action adaptions of its classic animated movies. Maleficent and Cinderella have already found box office success, and the studio hopes that Beauty and the Beast can continue that trend. Disney also has live-action adaptions in the works for The Jungle Book, Mulan, Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo.