The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to return quite a few characters from The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy, but one of fandom's favorites is legendary actor Christopher Lee as Saruman.

While the character wasn't present in J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel, future literature noted that Saruman was quite active during the time of this adventure, and director Peter Jackson is going to focus on some of that history with his interpretation of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Over the holidays, Christopher Lee brought a special message to his fans, offering some insight into Saruman's plight in this new movie. He also speaks out on his appearances in Hugo, The Wicker Tree, and Dark Shadows.

Check out the video below.

This is what Christopher Lee had to say about Saruman in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

"I did my part in about four days. What is extremely important is, in these two films, which, of course, are before The Lord of the Rings...Saruman, whom I play again, is indeed, still Saruman the White. But he is a good and noble man. And he is still the head of the council of wizards. As he always was."

About Dark Shadows, the actor had this to say.

"It is not a long part. Again, I only play short parts. They must be short parts. But they must be parts that mean something. That matter. That people notice when I am on the screen, and they will remember the character when they see the film."