Ian McKellen may be a legendary actor, but if you’ve ever channeled your frustration into aggressively folding laundry, rage-cleaning the kitchen, or dramatically power-walking after reading the news, congratulations: you have something in common with Sir Ian McKellen.
The legendary gay actor recently revealed that while filming Avengers: Doomsday, he tapped into a very specific source of anger to help bring Magneto’s destructive powers to life. And that source had a familiar address in Palm Beach, Florida.
Ian McKellen’s Magneto had one target in mind
During an appearance at Cinema in Piazza in Rome, McKellen shared behind-the-scenes details from the upcoming Marvel blockbuster with an audience of roughly 2,000 fans. Recalling directions from filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo, McKellen explained that the brothers wanted his mutant master of magnetism to look genuinely furious while unleashing chaos.
“[They told me to] make it look as if you hate what you’re destroying,” McKellen recalled.
His solution?
“So I stood there and I shouted: ‘Mar-a-Lago!’”
Just like that, Magneto’s destructive energy apparently found its muse. For anyone somehow unfamiliar, Mar-a-Lago is the Palm Beach resort Donald Trump has owned since 1985. Whether you’re laughing, nodding knowingly, or already picturing Magneto bending the resort into a giant metallic pretzel, the mental image is difficult to resist.
Destroying New Jersey? Just another day at the office
As if targeting one famous property wasn’t enough, McKellen also revealed the sheer scale of the sequence.
“They got me at one point to destroy New Jersey,” he told the crowd while re-enacting the moment on stage.
It’s the kind of sentence that only makes sense when spoken by an Oscar-nominated actor portraying one of Marvel’s most powerful mutants. The preview footage shown in Rome reportedly offered audiences a glimpse of the massive destruction awaiting fans when Avengers: Doomsday finally arrives. And if McKellen’s stories are any indication, Magneto won’t exactly be spending the film quietly tending a garden.
Avengers: Doomsday is shaping up to be Marvel’s biggest crossover yet
Avengers: Doomsday is expected to bring together characters from across the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four franchises before leading into Avengers: Secret Wars. The project was officially announced in July 2024, along with the headline-grabbing news that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is currently scheduled for release on December 18, 2026.
For longtime X-Men fans, McKellen’s return as Magneto is especially significant. The actor first brought the character to life in 2000, helping establish the mutant franchise as one of the defining superhero series of its era. More than two decades later, he’s still finding fresh ways to make the character memorable.
A gay icon of activism and outspokenness
McKellen’s jab at Mar-a-Lago isn’t exactly out of character. The actor has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump for years. Back in 2017, he condemned rollbacks affecting LGBTQ+ protections as “appalling and quite unnecessary and very un-American”.
Beyond his celebrated work as Magneto and Gandalf, McKellen has spent decades supporting LGBTQ+ equality efforts in Britain and around the world. Since publicly coming out in 1988, he has remained one of the most visible gay figures in entertainment, consistently speaking out against anti-LGBTQ+ policies and right-wing attacks on the community.
Whether he’s delivering Shakespeare, battling dark lords, bending metal with his mind, or taking a swipe at Trump while filming a Marvel movie, McKellen has never seemed particularly interested in staying quiet.
And frankly, if you’re playing Magneto and the directors ask you to think of something you hate destroying, shouting “Mar-a-Lago!” is one way to make sure the emotion comes through.
Source: The Guardian