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At the end of the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his own broken wand.

‘I know it’s powerful,’ said Harry wearily. ‘But I was happier with mine. So ...’

[...] He laid the broken wand upon the Headmaster’s desk, touched it with the very tip of the Elder Wand and said, ‘Reparo.’

As his wand resealed, red sparks flew out of its end. Harry knew that he had succeeded. He picked up the holly and Phoenix wand, and felt a sudden warmth in his fingers, as though wand and hand were rejoicing at their reunion.

In the movie, Hermione presumably disposed of Harry's wand after revealing that his wand was broken, after Harry said It's done. At the end of Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry simply destroys the Elder Wand, with no mention made of his old one.

Was there any explanation for the change in the ending (of Harry's wand)?

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According to Harry Potter: From Page to Screen -- A Complete Film Making Journal by Bob McCabe (page 224 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows):

Another significant alteration was to the scene between Harry, Ron, and Hermione in their last present moment. "There are dead, there are wounded, but they know there's a future," says (David) Heyman (Producer). "[Harry] has the stone, he has the Elder Wand, and he's always had the cloak. He could have the three Deathly Hallows; he could have ultimate power. But he doesn't want that. It was something that Dumbledore actually yearned for, that Dumbledore struggled with. But Harry doesn't want to have that responsibility. So he breaks the wand and throws it away."

David Heyman discussed this divergence from the book with Jo Rowling, "and she agreed that it was a perfect expression of Harry's relinquishing of the possibility of supreme power. It was a a visual representation of his ultimate humility."

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    This is answering the question "In the film, why did Harry destroy the Elder wand, instead of placing it back in Dumbledore's tomb?" It says nothing at all about why he didn't repair his old wand.
    – Martha
    Feb 23, 2015 at 5:37
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No explanation that I can find.

Even after expanding it to two movies, there are tons of stuff that they have left out. They had to. Otherwide we'd have 5 parts of HP5, 6 of HP6 (God forbid), and 7 of HP7 (by which time Radcliffe would look more like Dumbledore--alright, doing the math; more like Lupin).

As Kyralessa mentioned, JKR didn't write the movie. Yes, she probably had some input, but to reduce the aforementioned 7 movies down to 2 would require the removal of countless tiny things like this. If you've noticed, they've only kept stuff absolutely essential to the plot. The fate of Harry's wand isn't really essential. The scene where he fixes his wand underlines his character in the book, but it wouldn't have done much in the movie, as the power of the wand isn't that well known. In the movie, people would feel 'oh OK, he wanted his old wand back', while in the book, people feel that 'Wow he gave up the best wand ever for his own!'.

Actually, if you look at it, there are countless such holes in the movies.

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    Actually, if you look at it, there are countless such holes in any movie ever made after any book.
    – sbi
    Mar 4, 2012 at 20:07
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    Au contraire. The Princess Bride, for instance, was an improvement on the book. (But then, the screenplay was written by the author of the book.)
    – Kyralessa
    Apr 4, 2012 at 4:48
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    @Kyralessa: Exactly (not seen that movie). The author will do justice to their book, usually--he/she knows all the subtle, important stuff in the book. Have a fan write the script, and that will work as well (though you'll get ~20 movies per book in that case). Have an everyday scriptwriter write it, and he'll follow normal indistry rules. Understandable, but it leads to annoying stuff like this :/
    – Manishearth
    Apr 4, 2012 at 4:52
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    @Manishearth - Wait...did you just say you haven't seen The Princess Bride? <cough gasp splutter>
    – morganpdx
    Jul 10, 2012 at 21:24
  • @Manishearth Inconceivable!
    – InternetHobo
    Dec 18, 2021 at 20:15
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When Harry Ron and Hermione got caught by the snatchers in Deathly Hallows Part 1, Greyback searched Harry and found his broken wand, he threw it on the forest floor.

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I think something like this would have been cut down for time and pacing reasons, but I can't be sure. I imagine that Harry could have been shown pulling out the remnants of his broken wand, fixing them with the Elder, and then snapping the latter in half and casting it into that chasm. Maybe David Yates thought, "I'd love to show Harry mending his wand, but I don't have the time!"

Personally, I prefer the book version, in which Harry chooses wisely and opts for his humble old phoenix wand in place of the all-powerful weapon that Voldemort lusted after. This makes Harry's character so much more the hero. I suppose, though, that having him break the Elder Wand in the film equates to the same thing.

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