Peter Pan director David Lowery describes live-action remake as "The Revenant with flying kids"

Peter Pan
(Image credit: Disney)

Director David Lowery has spoken about his upcoming movie Peter Pan & Wendy – and made a surprising comparison to a certain Leonardo DiCaprio movie.

"I hesitate to use the word grounded because it has fairies and flying children in it," Lowery revealed to The Kingcast podcast (via ComicBook.com). "But when I went to talk to the studio about it I was like 'What if we stay true to the original material, remove the problematic elements of both the novel and the animated film of course, but then treat it like The Revenant. What if we made The Revenant with flying kids?' And they were into it. 

"It’s not 100% like that but it’s sort of the ethos by which we’ve gone about making it... That was sort of the idea, have it be visceral, have it be grounded, it’s still joyful, it’s still full of exuberance and magic, so that’s why I don’t like to use the word 'grounded.'"

Lowery's movie is a live-action remake of Disney's animated movie, which was originally released in 1953. Newcomer Alexander Molony will play Peter Pan, while Ever Anderson, who played young Natasha Romanoff in Black Widow, is Wendy. Jude Law is playing villainous pirate Captain Hook. Lowery's latest movie, The Green Knight, stars Dev Patel and is currently in theaters in the US. 

Peter Pan & Wendy will premiere on Disney Plus sometime in 2022. While we wait for it to arrive on the streamer, check out our list of the best movies on Disney Plus that you can watch right now.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.