Jude Law Reveals The Intense Reason His Hook Has Two Eye Colors In Peter Pan & Wendy
Did you eyeball this detail?
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:
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:
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:
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+.
CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER
Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News
Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.