Everyone is familiar with the tale of “Peter Pan,” regardless of whether they have read J.M. Barrie’s original play or novel, watched the Disney animated film, seen another film adaptation (P.J. Hogan’s 2003 version is recommended), learned the story through cultural osmosis, or a combination of all those things. Is there anyone out there who might have a new perspective that would justify going back to this well again? It’s a strange, whimsical, frequently repeated fairy tale about the difficulties of growing up and the certainty of death that has only grown more obviously problematic with time.
How about the author who just just transformed a strange, wacky, and frequently repeated fairy tale into a spellbinding fantasy epic about the difficulties of growing up and the certainty of death? Yes, “The Green Knight” director David Lowery will make “Peter Pan and Wendy,” a live-action adaptation of the studio’s 1953 animated “Peter Pan” picture and its inspiration, after his haunting, dreamlike, Arthurian story retelling. Here is everything we currently know about the movie.
When and Where to Watch Peter Pan & Wendy
In contrast to the majority of the House of Mouse’s live-action adaptations of its animated films thus far, “Peter Pan and Wendy” will make its debut as a streaming-only Disney+ original. That distinction belongs to the live-action version of “Lady and the Tramp,” which debuted on Disney’s streaming service in 2019 after its release in the United States. This year’s “Cruella” struck a balance between the two by debuting in cinemas on the same day that it was made available to stream on Disney+ for an additional fee.
Along with Robert Zemeckis’ live-action “Pinocchio,” Disney intends to direct-stream two remakes in 2022, including “Peter Pan and Wendy.” It’s assumed that this choice was made in part as a result of the studio’s live-action “Dumbo” remake, which demonstrated that audiences aren’t equally interested in seeing every Disney animated film redone with real people and photorealistic CGI. Dumbo didn’t, per se, flop at the box office (heck, it made a little over double its $170 million budget). When it hit theatres in 2016, Lowery’s excellent “Pete’s Dragon” retelling and that weren’t given the credit they deserved.
What We Think Peter Pan & Wendy Will Be About
Based on the official plot synopsis for the film, it appears like Lowery is crafting a rather obvious “Peter Pan” retelling:
[Peter Pan and Wendy] is a classic story about a little girl who, against the wishes of her parents, travels to the fantastical Neverland with her two younger brothers. They soon find themselves on a fascinating and perilous trip far, far away from their family and the comforts of home after she encounters a boy who won’t grow up, a tiny fairy, and a wicked pirate captain there.
What distinguishes this iteration of “Peter Pan” from prior ones if the plot is largely the same? Lowery claims that when he presented the movie to Disney, he described it as “‘The Revenant’ with flying kids” because it is grounded and visceral like that picture while also being “full of enthusiasm and wonder.” In addition to “The Lighthouse,” Lowery has claimed that “Peter Pan and Wendy” was “extremely affected” by another recent R-rated period film, “The Lighthouse.” The movie embraces magical realism in the same way as those movies and “The Green Knight” did, I’m going to venture to say (lest anyone think we’re getting a crazy, edgelord perspective on the people of Neverland).
What We Know About the Peter Pan & Wendy Cast and Crew
Toby Halbrooks, the co-author of “Pete’s Dragon” and a regular producer for Lowery, wrote the screenplay for “Peter Pan and Wendy,” which he is directing. Bojan Bazelli, who also photographed Gore Verbinski’s remakes of “The Ring” and “The Lone Ranger” as well as his box office flop turned cult horror movie, “A Cure for Wellness,” will be working alongside him behind the camera. That just serves to solidify the notion that Lowery’s version will have a stylised, darker style akin to “The Revenant” and “The Lighthouse.”
The cast of “Peter Pan and Wendy” includes Ever Anderson (the daughter of Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson) as Wendy Darling, Alexander Molony (“The Reluctant Landlord”) as Peter Pan, Joshua Pickering (“Black-ish”) as Wendy’s brothers John and Michael Darling, Jude Law (“Captain Marvel”) as Captain Hook, and Jim Gaffigan (“The Jim Gaffigan Show”) as Captain Hook’s first mate Mr. Smee Alan Tudyk (“Doom Patrol”), Molly Parker (“Lost in Space”), and relative newcomer Alyssa Wapanatâhk (“Tiger Lily”) round out the cast as Mr. and Mrs. Darling.
Speaking of Tiger Lily, Lowery promises that “Peter Pan and Wendy” does away with “the problematic components of both the text and the animated feature,” notably the latter’s slur on the Native American tribe of Neverland that earned it a content warning on Disney+. It has already surpassed Joe Wright’s “Pan” in that respect by casting Wapanatâhk.
