It isn't difficult to imagine the talented Ian McKellen taking on any role. After all, the veteran actor took to playing the X-Men's Magneto as easily as fish to water. He also gave an outstanding performance as the wizard Gandalf in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

But could he have played a central role in the Mission Impossible movies?

McKellen recently told People that he could have missed out on playing two of his most iconic roles if he decided to work with Tom Cruise.

"I got offered a part in 'Mission: Impossible II' with Tom Cruise, but they wouldn't let me see the whole script because I might have spilled the beans. I only got my scenes," he had said.

The secrecy didn't work too well for McKellen. "Well, I couldn't judge from reading just those scenes what the script was like. So I said no," he said. "And my agent said, 'You cant say no to working with Tom Cruise!' and I said, 'I think I will.'"

That was when magic happened.

"The next day, Bryan Singer asked me to play Magneto and then Peter Jackson asked me to play Gandalf, and I said yes to both," McKellen said.

According to the actor, things didn't go smoothly at first, with 'X-Men' getting delayed. However, both Singer and Jackson agreed to work with McKellen's schedule.

He also revealed that things didn't go so well for the MI6.

"Meanwhile, 'Mission Impossible' was put off, put off, put off," he said. "And if I had decided to do that, I wouldn't have been in 'X-Men' and I wouldn't have been in 'Lord of the Rings.'"

McKellen concluded his story with a great message about luck.

"You can't prepare for luck," he said. "I've learned that you've got to be ready for the luck when it arrives, but you're going to need the luck."

Ian McKellen's latest project is the drama 'Mr. Holmes,' which premiered on July 17.