Just as Peter Pan vows to never grow up, movies about him are proving just as resistant to age out of Hollywood. Disney continues to adapt its catalog of classic animated
films with Peter Pan & Wendy, and the next live-action movie has found its Tinkerbell. Relative newcomers Ever Anderson and Alexander Molony were cast as Wendy Darling and Peter Pan, respectively, back in March. Oscar nominee Jude Law boarded the project as Captain Hook in July. And now the film has secured its iconic winged fairy.
Below, everything we know about the new film, including if it will premiere on Disney+.
Who is involved?
Sources tell Varietythat Anderson (who will reportedly play the younger version of Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow and is the daughter of actress Milla Jovovich) will play Wendy. Meanwhile, Molony (Disney Junior series Claude) will play Peter Pan himself.
Law has been cast as the villainous Captain Hook, Varietyreports, a role previously assumed by Dustin Hoffman in 1991, Christopher Walken in 2014, and Garrett Hedlund in 2015.
Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish, The Sun Is Also A Star) will play Tinkerbell in Peter Pan & Wendy, per Deadline.Her role has previously been played by Julia Roberts in Hook, Keira Knightley in Pan, and Mae Whitman in animated iterations.
Deadline reported back in April 2016 that Pete's Dragon filmmaker David Lowery would direct and co-write the script with his collaborator on that film, Toby Halbrooks. Jim Whitaker (Pete's Dragon, A Wrinkle in Time) will produce the project.
What is Peter & Wendy about?
No official synopsis has been provided for the new iteration of the film. However, the project will have plenty of source material to draw inspiration from. Based on the 1904 play and 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie, the tale of the boy in green who refused to grow up and transports the Darling children to Neverland has been told countless times.
In addition to the classic 1953 animated film and its 2002 follow-up Return to Neverland, there have been several film adaptations (Spielberg's Hook in 1991, 2015's Pan, and 2020's Wendy among them). Plus, who could forget the stage musicals (1954's Peter Pan, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Finding Neverland among them) and NBC's Peter Pan Live! in 2014?
When and where will the film be released?
We'll have to wait a little longer before learning when Peter & Wendy will be released. But Variety notes that while there is speculation the movie will end up on Disney+, sources say it is "expected" to premiere in theaters.