Dumbledore was the primary wielder of the most powerful wand in Harry Potter canon: the Elder Wand — but how did Dumbledore get the Elder Wand? Although it wasn't known about for much for Harry Potter's story, the Elder Wand becomes one of the Wizarding World's most important and powerful objects towards the end of the books and movies. Sought after by Lord Voldemort, it's what he sees as his best chance of defeating Harry for good, but the wand itself is so much bigger than even Voldemort realizes, since it stands as one third of the Deathly Hallows alongside the Invisibility Cloak and Resurrection Stone.
The Deathly Hallows themselves are magical artifacts that have an exceedingly bloody history and are shrouded in mystery. While it's rumored that the Deathly Hallows were made with Thestral magic, with the Elder Wand having a Thestral tail hair core, Harry Potter canon has made it clear that the objects are mysterious, even in the wizarding world. Prior to being in Dumbledore's possession, the evil wizard Grindelwald of the Fantastic Beasts series held the Elder Wand. Voldemort was enlightened of this fact in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and tracked down the elderly wizard to Nurmengard. However, how did Dumbledore get the Elder Wand?
What The Elder Wand Is & Why It's So Important
The wand has a long, bloody history that dates all the way back to the 13th Century and the Peverell brothers, with each respective owner having to be defeated (and usually that means killed) for its allegiance to change. In terms of Harry Potter's timeline, the Elder Wand mostly belongs to Albus Dumbledore; even when Voldemort takes the wand from his grave, though, it doesn't bend to his will. Instead, the Elder Wand passes from Dumbledore to Draco Malfoy, and then to Harry himself, who eventually destroys it. But how did Dumbledore get the Elder Wand in the first place?
The story behind his possession of the Deathly Hallow has already been revealed, albeit briefly, in Harry Potter. Dumbledore got the Elder Wand by defeating Grindelwald in their legendary 1945 duel, which sees Albus face off with and conquer his former friend turned great rival once and for all and take the wand for his own as its rightful new owner. The question "how did Grindelwald get the Elder Wand?" is explored briefly in the Harry Potter movies when a flashback shows a young Grindelwald stealing it from Gregorovich. Grindelwald uses the wand throughout his war on the Wizarding and Muggle worlds, and is among its most well-known owners.
Fantastic Beasts Never Showed Dumbledore Getting The Elder Wand
The question of how does Dumbledore get the Elder Wand is answered in Harry Potter canon, but it will probably never be seen in Fantastic Beasts. Dumbledore got the Elder Wand by defeating Grindelwald in his infamous 1945 duel with the dark wizard. This information will end up being memorialized in Chocolate Frog Card alone, as the Fantastic Beasts series doesn't look to be continuing. Though Dumbledore and Grindelwald do have a decent fight at the end of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film of the franchise takes place in 1932, a good 13 years before their final duel happens.
It's unclear when Fantastic Beasts 4 was supposed to be set, but chances are Fantastic Beasts 5 — the film that was supposed to close out the franchise — would've shown the answer to "How does Dumbledore get the Elder Wand?" onscreen. Technically, Grindelwald did have the Elder Wand by the end of Secrets of Dumbledore, not just because of the movie's time period, but because Dumbledore didn't ever disarm his former lover. Albus blocked Grindelwald's Killing Curse against Credence (something that retconned the Killing Curse rules), and the two did duel. However, Albus got the Elder Wand by disarming and defeating Grindelwald in their 1945 duel.
HBO's Harry Potter Series Can Show The Full History Of The Elder Wand
The answer to "How did Dumbledore get the Elder Wand?" may never be shown on the screen in the form of Albus and Grindelwald's duel. However, the Harry Potter television show at HBO Max could show a deeper history of the magical artifact. In the Harry Potter movies, the Deathly Hallows themselves came as a bit of a surprise for audience members that didn't read the books. However, throughout the novels, the Hallows are foreshadowed, particularly through the uniqueness of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Just how different Harry's Cloak is from all the rest is discussed numerous times throughout the books, setting up the fact that it's a unique magical object.
The Harry Potter reboot TV show has the chance to explore the Deathly Hallows storyline in a greater capacity, making the revelation of their existence not so jarring. This includes the bloody history of the Elder Wand, as it is the most well-known and arguably most important Deathly Hallow to the plot. The movies didn't do a terrific job of explaining how the Elder Wand was passed down, forgoing answering "How did Dumbledore get the Elder Wand?" entirely, and giving a haphazard explanation about Draco disarming Dumbledore and Harry disarming Draco at the very end. Hopefully, the Harry Potter TV reboot will take this important storyline into account.