Yara Shahidi Will Play Tinkerbell in Live-Action ‘Peter Pan’ Movie

Yara Shahidi is set to play Tinkerbell in the upcoming Disney’s live-action. It will be a new take on Peter Pan called, Peter Pan and Wendy.

Disney’s casting team is making all the right choices as Yara jumped on board as well. Earlier, it was reported that Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel in the studio’s live-action Little Mermaid.

The live-action take on Peter Pan is coming from director David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon). It also includes newcomers Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson as the titular duo alongside Jude Law as Captain Hook.

The popular Disney character of Tinkerbell has been played by Margaret Kerry (who served as the live-action model for 1953 animated classic), Julia Roberts (1991’s Hook), and Ludivine Sagnier (2003’s Peter Pan); Rose McIver, meanwhile, played the pixie on ABC’s Once Upon a Time.

The Grown-ish star has not made a comment since her casting. However, Yara had voiced her thoughts on Halle being the next Ariel. “I think she does maintain all of those classic traits of Ariel while bringing that sense of confidence and empowerment,” she said.

Yara added that when one hears Halle’s voice, everything is perfect. She shared her excitement on knowing that a group of people will grow up to see her as Ariel. The actress said, “I know what it did for me when I saw The Princess and the Frog, and so she’s redefining the landscape.”

A source has revealed that the release of the live-action is expected to be theatrical instead of pushing it on their stream service, Disney+. J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter Pan is still the most successful adaptation. It is considered as one of Disney’s classic movie which released in 1953.

Peter Pan was a boy who never aged and he comes to Earth and takes away children to his magical place, Neverland. This is not the first time the classic is being remade. Steven Spielberg made an adaptation with Robin Williams called Hook. So did Joe Wright with his remake called Pan, however, both of these movies did not do well at the box office.

In novel and films, Tinker Bell is a fairy and Peter’s closest friend and was famously played by Julia Roberts in Spielberg’s retelling. In recent years, Disney has been open to any actor playing a role that originally was limited to Caucasian talent. Disney really stepped up, making waves after setting Halle to play the mermaid Ariel. With Tinker Bell, the studio and Lowery wanted to do the same from the get-go and quickly pursued Yara, whose star has been on the rise for some time.

Yara had her break with her role in Black-ish as Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross’ daughter Zoey. Her character became a fan-favorite and led her to have her own spin-off series Grown-ish. After the success of the show, ABC has signed her for an overall deal.