The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies - 10 Questions We Need Answering

8. What Happens To Radagast?

The more observant/pernickety of you out there may have wondered how Gandalf would get his staff back in time for the Rings trilogy after Sauron disintegrated it in The Desolation Of Smaug. The answer is that the staff that gets destroyed isn't the one from Rings; the one Gandalf uses in the original trilogy is Radagast's. Seriously, the one used by Gandalf the Grey in Fellowship is exactly the same as the one the Brown wizard uses in the Hobbit Trilogy (minus the blue, hedgehog-life-giving thing). Which begs the question; what happens to Radagast? The character doesn't originally appear in The Hobbit at all, instead having been brought over from The Lord Of The Rings (where, in the books, he called the eagles when Gandalf was held captive at Isengard), so this is totally up to whatever Jackson feels. The obvious option is that he'll die. It'd certainly explain why Radagast doesn't pop up when the entire of Middle Earth is in peril (he was on mushrooms isn't an adequate excuse) and would actually justify his inclusion in the trilogy beyond Weta getting a chance to show of their kinda realistic animal animation. Killing a wizard hasn't been seen in the series and would certainly make Gandalf feel that little less invincible in the originals.