The casting of Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell in the upcoming Disney reboot of the childhood classic Peter Pan has stirred controversy and left some fans unhappy. While many say this is a win for diversity to cast the 23-year-old Black actress as Peter Pan's famous sidekick in Disney+'s live-action Peter Pan & Wendy, others think it's more of a blanket statement about maintaining an image than being truly inclusive.
The upcoming film is directed and co-written by David Lowery, who made "The Green Knight" and Disney's "Pete's Dragon." "In making Peter Pan & Wendy, we set out to craft a film that honors both the original J.M. Barrie text and Walt Disney's animated adaptation; we wanted to invigorate our retelling with emotional sincerity, an open heart and a grand yearning for adventure," Lowery said in a statement, per PEOPLE. "Hundreds of incredible artists spent many years bringing this film to the screen," he added. "I'm excited for audiences to see their work, to go on this ride and to rediscover an evergreen tale from a new perspective."
One fan tweeted: Not everything needs to be a minority. A fictional character is just fictional, it's not an obligation to be inclusive. It's fine to let it be the way it was intended to be. IF YOU WANT TO BE INCLUSIVE CREATE NEW CHARACTERS THAT REPRESENT US MINORITIES. Do not change existing ones. Another said: So instead of giving POC their own movies or making new movies with POC characters, they decided to just make white characters black for some reason to be like, hey we are so accepting we support everyone.. this is so weird, other than a princess and the frog there isn't any other. They also added that "for everyone saying she is a fairy or whatnot, that is not the point. We need movies for POC original characters and not just race-swapping old ones so they can profit." A third person also argued: "The reason studios make beloved characters black in the live-action adaptations is so they don’t have to go to the trouble of actually giving special, brand new unique characters made from scratch to black people. Some even pointed out that Tinkerbell already has a Black fairy friend named Iridessa in the Disney Fairies franchise.
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Other actors in the film include Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson in the titular roles and Jude Law as Captain Hook. The movie is a reimagining of the classic novel and Disney's 1953 animated movie. The film joins several latest live-action takes on familiar tales like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Other remakes of Peter Pan's story include the 2015 release of Joe Wright's Pan and Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook.
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Yara Shahidi previously opened up to Good Morning America on how she prepped for the role of Tinkerbell. "I know my brother, who is my theoretical next-door roommate, has heard me putting around my room trying to figure out, 'How does Tinker Bell walk? How does she land?'" the actress shared. "But it's been a really fun prep process."
"I've started the kind of motion capture of it all and we're just trying to figure out how we portray Tinker Bell and she's gonna be like five inches tall on-screen," Shahidi added at the time. "But we've had a really fun time and preparation has ranged from running through lines to creating playlists."
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