It has been months since we heard recent news of the Peter Pan remake that Disney is developing, until today when Deadline reported that this new version found its Tinkerbell in Yara Shahidi. The statement asserts that director David Lowery and the studio have been seeking to make a deal with Shahidi for a long time, however, it just now materialized.
This will be the first time an African-American woman will play Tinkerbell, a character who has been typified as a white woman. In recent years, Disney has tried to improve on the diversity of its cast, allowing actors of color to play characters that have traditionally been white, for example, with Ariel from The Little Mermaid, who will be played by Halle Bailey.
Interestingly, Shahidi and Bailey co-star in the Grown-ish series, it is very likely that their work on this series has been what put them in the crosshairs of Disney for these projects.
The new version of Peter Pan, based on the novel by JM Barrie, is directed by David Lowery and stars Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Jude Law and now Yara Shahidi. The development of the film was put on hiatus due to the pandemic, so it is not clear when production will begin and what its release date will be.
