Is Disney’s ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ another woke movie?

Disney’s reimagining of Peter Pan & Wendy is now available to stream on Disney Plus; however, one glance at the movie’s poster or trailer will tell you this is not like any other Peter Pan movie you’ve seen before. 

The movie’s sheer level of deviation from its predecessors has caused a commotion among moviegoers (or just anyone who happens to spot a clip from the trailer) and thus has sparked a debate about whether the film is “woke.” 

What are we talking about exactly? Well, Disney’s casting of actors and actresses who aren’t white in roles that have previously only been filled by white actors, as well as female characters where previously there have only been males, is one prime example. 

Indeed, the conversation of wokeness is complex, non-linear, and chock-full of opinions. But we’re hoping we can whittle it down to some facts for you (with a little opinion sprinkled in). 

Is Disney’s ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ woke?

We are going to make this short and sweet because there’s no use in belaboring the point (and because the mere question of whether Peter Pan & Wendy is woke just reiterates the negative connotation Americans have bestowed upon the word in recent years). 

Yes, Peter Pan is now played by a mixed-race actor (Alexander Molony). Yes, Tinker Bell is not played by (yet) another white actress (Yara Shahidi). Yes, Captain Hook’s crew has some diversity in it because, contrary to popular belief, not only white men become pirates. And, yes, the Lost Boys now include some Lost Girls because girls are orphaned, too.

If all of those examples mean the movie is “woke,” then yes, the movie is woke. In reality, the movie is simply an accurate reflection of what the world looks like today. Just because Hollywood has whitewashed (and man-washed) its movies for over a century does not actually mean that is what the world looks like, even though that is exactly the kind of ideology that has seeped into the societal consciousness as a result. One look around you will show that the world is filled with people who are Black, Asian, Southeast Asian, Hispanic, LatinX, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Native American, Alaska Native, American Indian, Mixed, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and every other box we’re forced to check to make sense of our identities. So, the characters in our movies should look the same, should they not? 

It can sting when a popular intellectual property such as Peter Pan is reimagined with a modern approach, especially when it’s rooted in beloved childhood memories. But it should sting more that we ever thought it was okay to love a movie so limited in its representation. That’s just not what the world looks like. So, our movies shouldn’t look like that, either. 

So, we’ll leave you with that and one final question. Is the problem that the movie is “woke,” or should the problem be that it was once fully white (fully straight, fully cis-gendered, fully male, etc…) with a few token diversity characters to begin with? 

Should you desire to check out the wokeness for yourself, Peter Pan & Wendy is currently streaming on Disney Plus. You can read our full review here.