Disney’s Live-Action Peter Pan Casts Grown-ish Star As Tinkerbell

Disney has cast Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan & Wendy. The Mouse House has spent the last few years dipping back into the well of their animated classics and giving them the live-action treatment. This business strategy has proven to be quite lucrative for Disney, but it has also seen them tackle most of their biggest titles. The Lion King, Mulan, and Beauty and the Beast have all been done in recent years, and Disney has shown no signs of wanting to slow down this output.

One of their upcoming live-action reimaginings will take audiences back to Never Never Land with a new take on Peter Pan. Disney initially brought the imaginative story to life in 1953 with an animated movie. Now, Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery is scheduled to update the story, with the movie angling for a better balance between Peter Pan and Wendy’s story, as evident by the title. The movie was gearing up for filming before coronavirus by adding to the cast, which includes Jude Law as Captain Hook, and now Peter Pan & Wendy has found its Tinkerbell.

According to Deadline, Disney has cast Yara Shahidi as Tinkerbell in the live-action Peter Pan & Wendy. Shahidi has become a bright young star in Hollywood over the last few years after receiving her breakout role as Zoey Johnson in the ABC drama Black-ish. She has since starred in the Grown-ish spinoff and appeared in fellow spinoff Mixed-ish as well. With this casting, Shahidi will be the first Black actress to play Tinkerbell.

Shahidi will step into a role that has become iconic over the last several decades. Even though Tinkerbell had a role in the 1953 animated movie, she doesn’t have a speaking part, which is likely an aspect that Disney will update for Shahidi in Peter Pan & Wendy. Tinkerbell was previously portrayed on the big screen by Julia Roberts in Hook and Ludivine Sagnier in the 2003 Peter Pan. Rose McIver also played Tinkerbell in multiple episodes of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. It was previously reported that Margot Robbie was being eyed for the role, but now we know that Shahidi has taken it on instead.

Disney’s decision to cast Shahidi as Tinkerbell is just the latest example of the studio diversifying the cast of predominantly white stories. One of the most significant and more recent examples of this was casting Halle Bailey as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. The announcement of the latter saw some backlash online over the idea of Ariel not being a white woman with red hair, similar to the comments made after Zendaya was revealed to be the MCU’s version of Mary Jane. However, Shahidi was there to offer support and praise Disney’s decision to cast her Grown-ish co-star as Ariel, making her casting as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan & Wendy even better.

Source: Deadline

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Cooper Hood
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Cooper Hood is a news and feature writer for Screen Rant. He joined Screen Rant in late 2016 following a year-long stint with MCU Exchange, which came after first developing an MCU blog of his own. He graduated college in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Public Communication, with a minor in Media Production. Cooper’s love for movies began by watching Toy Story and Lion King on repeat as a child, but it wasn’t until The Avengers that he took an invested interest in movies and the filmmaking process, leading him to discover the world of film journalism. Every year Cooper looks forward to seeing the latest blockbusters from the likes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, but also loves the rush to catch up on Oscar films near the end of the year. When he isn’t writing about or watching new releases, Cooper is a fantasy football obsessive and looking to expand his Blu-Ray collection – because physical media is still king! Follow Cooper on Twitter @MovieCooper.

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