‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ Star Yara Shahidi Says Disney Remaking Animated Classic In Order To Give Black And Brown Audiences “The Fairy Tale We Deserve”
Spencer Baculi
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According to Peter Pan & Wendy star Yara Shahidi, Disney’s intention behind remaking their animated take on The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up was not to earn social media brownie points, but in fact give black and brown moviegoers “the fairy tale we deserve”.
Tinkerbell (Yara Shahidi) watches on as the Darling children take flight in Peter Pan & Wendy (2023), Disney
Shahidi, who is set to portray a race-swapped version of Tinkerbell in the upcoming live-action Disney Plus exclusive, offered this defense of the film’s existence during a recent profile interview given to the women’s beauty and style outlet Byrdie.
Peter Pan (Christopher Steele) makes the acquaintance of Sora (Hayley Joel Osment), Donald (Tony Anselmo), and Goofy (Bill Farmer) in Kingdom Hearts (2002), Square Enix
Speaking with the outlet’s Olivia Hancock on a variety of topics ranging from her career history to her time studying African American studies and sociology at Harvard, the pair’s conversation eventually turned to the topic of Disney’s now infamous predilection for making changes to the superficial traits of their many classic characters.
Met with praise from Hancock over how the House of Mouse’s latest casting habit indicated that they were moving in a “more inclusive” direction, Shahidi then attempted to claim (and somewhat nonsensically at that) that her appearance in Peter Pan & Wendy was not a lazy attempt to virtue signal, but rather representative of a cultural desire within the company to repackage their old products for new and ‘diverse’ audiences.
Yara Shahidi as Tinkerbell in Disney’s live-action PETER PAN & WENDY, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
“I talked to the director [of Peter Pan & Wendy], David Lowery, about why he and the higher-ups at Disney wanted to retell this story and I loved his response,” the Grown-ish star explained. “They wanted to bring some new fun to this classic but also give us the fairy tale we deserve.”
“They wanted to bring some new fun to this classic but also give us the fairy tale we deserve,” she added. “It’s evident they’re not just popping Black and Brown folks in the cast for the sake of updating the story. Instead, it’s about creating a story that so many more people can see themselves in after we’ve been left out for so long.”
Peter Pan (Christopher Steele) recalls Ventus’ visit to Neverland to Aqua (Willa Holland) in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (2009), Square Enix
Notably, this is not the first time Shahidi has presented a contradictory word salad in defense of Disney’s race-swapping.
Asked by The Hollywood Reporter for her thoughts on the overwhelmingly negative reception to both her and The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey’s casting as originally white characters, Shahidi opined, “What’s been beautiful is seeing the response to both of our characters and seeing how many people feel included in this fairy tale, while also maintaining the magic that we love in the first placed.”
Ariel (Halle Bailey) speaks with Scuttle (Akwafina) after gaining her legs in The Little Mermaid (2023), Disney
“I think oftentimes people think of diversity and inclusion as threatening or jeopardizing the quality of the story, instead of seeing how beautifully they can be interwoven together to create something that impacts even more people, that lets even more people into stories that we love,” she added. “The amount of people who are like, ‘Oh my goodness, I get to see a fairy that looks like me,’ I think validates the fact that we all deserve a large fantasy life.”
Peter Pan & Wendy’s current flight path has the live-action remake landing on Disney Plus on April 28th.
The official theatrical poster for Peter Pan & Wendy (2023), Disney
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