J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has a cast of characters as wide as the Sundering Seas, so it is little wonder one as marginal as Radagast the Brown didn’t get a precise sendoff. Published in three parts between 1954 and 1955, the novel was adapted into Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Radagast got a tiny mention in the children’s book The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. This impressively made it to the screen in Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, which invented most of its Radagast material, but none of that helped us ascertain the fate of the character.

Confusingly, Radagast’s mention in The Lord of the Rings was slightly bigger than his part in The Hobbit, although he didn’t get a part in the original LotR trilogy to show for it. Nonetheless, he was a key member of Lord of the Rings’ five Istari and balanced the group out among its lead hero (Gandalf) and its lead villain (Saruman). Represented by Sylvester McCoy from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Radagast captured hearts with his simple lifestyle. His future after LotR can be roughly surmised.

Radagast The Brown’s Fate After Lord Of The Rings Is Unknown, But He Failed In His Mission

Radagast Didn’t Fight Sauron Like Gandalf Did

J.R.R. Tolkien actually did not go into detail about the final fate of Radagast the Brown, and Peter Jackson chose not to invent any stories around it. However, Radagast’s future can be roughly surmised based on what readers and viewers do know about him. Known as an Istar in Lord of the Rings’ Elvish language of Quenya, this Wizard was the animal-lover of the five, and he failed in his mission to oppose Sauron due to his immersion in nature. Radagast ultimately turned from his purpose to protect the flora and fauna of his realm.

Why Radagast Is Probably Still In Middle-earth After Sauron’s Defeat

Radagast Probably Never Strayed Too Far From His Realm

Radagast the Brown likely stayed in his realm, helping rebuild it after Sauron’s rise to power. Unlike Lord of the Rings’ Blue Wizards, Radagast was at least known to be a defender of Middle-earth’s free birds and beasts. The Blue Wizards, who went east and never returned, may have fallen to Sauron for all the Valar or Elves knew. Radagast loved the inhabitants of his realm so much that he gave up everything to protect them. The chances are this continued, with or without a renegade demigod waging war on Middle-earth.

As one of the original underlings of Lord of the Rings’ 15 Valar, Sauron the Maia was due a defeat – he was never as powerful as the Valar’s might combined, who had Middle-earth’s God on their side. Serving Eru Ilúvatar, the Valar that had sent the Istari to Middle-earth would neither have let Sauron win nor minded particularly if Radagast went off-piste. By the Third Age of Middle-earth, the Valar had stepped back from detailed micromanagement of whatever went on in Middle-earth, even where it concerned their Istari in The Lord of the Rings.