Peter Jackson recently spoke with MTV and reported that both he and Guillermo del Toro will begin casting new characters for The Hobbit very soon. They will be holding auditions for almost all of the characters, with the lone exception being the role of Gandalf which will be reprised by Ian McKellen.  "Gandalf, being a 2,000-year-old wizard, is still around and plays a major role in The Hobbit" explained Jackson who is executive-producing the film and writing the screenplay. As for the possibility of Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchette), "they are elves so, in the realm of Middle-Earth, they're immortal, they don't age," Jackson said, "We're auditioning for every role, apart from Ian McKellen who we obviously want to return as Gandalf. We are not really offering any roles to anybody until we've done a casting sweep".
 

Shooting is expected to being in April or May 2010 with del Toro as director.