Lord Of The Rings: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Wizards
2. Radagast Sucked At His Job
If there was one thing The Hobbit movies got right, it was that we finally got to meet a much loved character from The Lord of the Rings. Sylvester McCoy played the Brown Wizard like an old hippie who's taken his love of nature to the extremes.
And it's fairly accurate to Tolkien. Out of all the wizards, only Gandalf was said to have succeeded in his original task. Saruman succumbed to evil, the Blue Wizards were shrouded in mystery, and although Radagast never joined Sauron, he became so preoccupied with the world of nature that he neglected in assisting the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
Apart from a brief mention from Gandalf, the Brown Wizard does not appear in The Hobbit. He does, however, play a key role in The Fellowship of the Ring. He was never a traveller, resolving to stay in peaceful isolation at his home in Mirkwood. But during the War of the Ring, Radagast was motivated to engage in the affairs of the Free People after the Nazgûl reappeared.
Saruman sends him to find Gandalf, summoning him to Isengard. Radagast was unaware of Saruman's true intentions, but his actions resulted in Gandalf's capture and imprisonment. When the Fellowship gathers at Rivendell, it's revealed that no one could find Radagast after these events, leaving his fate unknown.