Acting was never David Bowie’s main focus, but when you look back at his IMDB credits, he had a pretty impressive acting career in those moments when he wasn’t consumed with music. Bowie had one iconic fantasy-movie role when he played the Goblin King in Labyrinth, but he could’ve had an even more important role in the biggest fantasy-movie series ever. He could’ve been Galdalf.

Talking to The Huffington Post, the actor and former Drive Shaft bassist Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in the Lord Of The Rings movies, remembers when he saw David Bowie come in to audition for those same movies. Monaghan had just auditioned for his own role in London, and he was waiting around to get some feedback: “As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. And I’m assuming he read for Gandalf. I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for. He may have read for something else. But I’m a huge David Bowie fan, and I was lucky enough to know his son now, so just seeing him in person was pretty special to me.”

Ian McKellen obviously did just fine in the Gandalf role, but it’s fun to think about what Bowie would’ve done with that same part. And while we’re on the subject of Ian McKellen roles that maybe should’ve gone to Bowie, how great would Bowie have been as Magneto?