Gandalf Didn’t Have Just One Staff in Lord of the Rings, but a Whopping Five — Here’s Why

Gandalf (Ian McKellen) may undergo the most change in The Lord of the Rings, at least aesthetically, as he goes from being Gandalf the Gray to Gandalf the White, yet he always has a staff…just not the same one. He and the other Istari use a staff to channel their immense power, but Gandalf constantly seems to lose his. While J.R.R. Tolkien established that Gandalf changed his staff when he became Gandalf the White, Peter Jackson's films take that further by giving Gandalf five different staffs during the six films he appears in (between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbittrilogies). These consistent changes speak to the film's level of detail as they work to keep up with when he loses his weapon and replace it with something a little different.