Jude Law is in talks to play Captain Hook in Disney’s upcoming live action Peter Pan reboot, Peter Pan and Wendy. The news comes four months after Ever Anderson and Alexander Molony were confirmed to be playing Wendy and Peter respectively.
David Lowery is set to direct, having previously collaborated with Disney on Pete’s Dragon. Lowery co-wrote the script with Toby Halbrooks, and the pair worked together previously on Pete’s Dragon as well as A Ghost Story and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. David Lowery has also directed The Green Knight, due for release this year.
Law has previously worked with Disney as Yon Rogg in Captain Marvel, but has been seen most recently in HBO and Sky Atlantic’s television series The New Pope. He is set to reprise his role of Albus Dumbledore in Universal’s upcoming film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise in November 2021.
This live-action adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic novel comes after the incredible commercial success of Disney’s 2019 reboots, The Lion King and Aladdin, which both grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Despite continuing uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic, unlike Disney’s latest live action release The Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and Wendy is expected to have a theatrical release.
The film was among the shoots Disney had to pause production on due to the pandemic, along with The Little Mermaid, the Marvel collaboration Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings and Disney’s remake of John Hughes’ 1990 Christmas classic Home Alone.
This is not the first live action version of Barrie’s classic novel. P.J. Hogan directed Peter Pan in 2003, following Stephen Spielberg’s Hook adaptation in 1991 starring the late Robin Williams. Peter Pan was first pictured on-screen in a silent film in 1924, but Disney’s 1953 cartoon adaptation remains the highest grossing Peter Pan film to date, with lifetime earnings of $405,593,100 (adjusted for inflation).
If the deal closes, Law will be following the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Jason Isaacs and Garrett Hedlund to bring one of fiction’s most famous pirates back to the silver screen.
Words by Olivia Emily