With 70 years between Disney’s animated iteration of Peter Pan and today, it was about time the House of Mouse revisit J. M. Barrie’s classic fairytale. In David Lowery’s Peter Pan & Wendy, the story turns on a deeper backstory for Captain Hook beyond a simple vendetta. Among the emotional stakes explored between Jude Law’s version of the pirate and Alexander Molony’s Peter Pan, it's all in the details of the character’s look, which CinemaBlend learned about while speaking to Law and the writer/director.
In particular, why does this version of Captain Hook have two eye colors? If you’ve experienced Peter Pan & Wendy with a Disney+ subscription, you probably noticed Law’s version has one blue eye and one pitch black eye. Law told us the story behind the choice with these words:
Putting the look of Hook together was a really collaborative, slow, meticulous process, and it was linked very much also to his past, which obviously we delve into in this version. And, early on after much dialogue and shared emails, David [Lowery] sent me a Photoshop of me as he saw Hook. And because obviously of this huge hunk of metal that he has strapped to his right hand, he decided that he would surely have scars where early on he'd either caught his face or, indeed in battle. And the eye was one of those, the idea that he had, he had damaged one eye, just seemed fitting.
There you have it. The decision has a lot to do with the filmmakers thinking deeply about what it would be like to be Captain Hook and have a hook rather than a hand. As Law shared, they figured the pirate at one point must have injured his eye in a moment of forgetfulness. Writer/director David Lowery, who also reimagined Pete’s Dragon in 2016 and made the 2021 A24 epic, The Green Knight, shared his thoughts on it as well:
It was just like, ‘what is the practicality of having a big rusty hook for a hand?’ You wouldn't, you know, sometimes forget perhaps that you had it, you would just think like, I'm gonna scratch my eye. My eye itches and a horrible accident occurs. So, it was practical, but it also helped enrich that character and it helps us understand where he is coming from and what he's been through.
The retelling of Peter Pan, which received mixed first reactions and a 3.5 out of 5 in CinemaBlend’s Peter Pan & Wendy review, tells the classic story of Wendy Darling and her brothers being whisked away to Neverland by Peter Pan with some twists along the way regarding how the material is handled. Law also said this about his version of Captain Hook:
He's such a scarred man. The path, he's either been forced down or taken willingly, has scarred him physically and emotionally.
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Directed By: David Lowery
Written By: David Lowery and Toby Halbrooks
Starring: Jude Law, Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Yara Shahidi, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Molly Parker, and Alan Tudyk
Rating: PG for violence, peril and thematic elements
Runtime: 103 minutes
Along with Jude Law’s Captain Hook and Peter Pan getting a more grounded origin story, the Peter Pan & Wendy cast is also notably led by Ever Anderson’s Wendy Darling, who has a great arc throughout the film that defies some of the classic character’s previous iterations. Meanwhile, Yara Shahidi plays a sweet Tinker Bell and Jim Gaffigan is Hook’s right-hand man Smee.
Peter Pan & Wendy has been seven years in the making, with David Lowery and co-writer Toby Halbrooks signing on to the project back in 2016. The material is personal to Lowery, who previously told Entertainment Weekly when he was writing it he was “agonizing over every little detail” to make it a solid adaptation. Clearly, this movie really paid attention to those small details, and you can see them for yourself in the latest Disney live-action remake is now streaming on Disney+.
