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Yara Shahidi Is Set to Make History as the First Black Tinkerbell in 'Peter Pan' Live-Action Remake

It looks like Yara Shahidi will be our go-to for pixie dust from now on since she's about to become the new Tinkerbell.

Deadline recently confirmed that the Grown-ish star is set to portray the classic character in Disney's Peter Pan live-action remake, Peter Pan and Wendy. This means that Shahidi will be the first Black woman to ever portray the role, which was previously played by Julia Roberts in 1991 and Ludivine Sagnier in 2003.

The actress celebrated the announcement with two posts on Instagram, first sharing a glowing selfie of herself in a green outfit with the caption, "lettssssgooooo #Tinkerbell." Countless stars congratulated her on the casting news, including her pal Zendaya, who simply exclaimed, "yyyyesssssss!!!!!!!"

The actress then uploaded an impressive fan illustration of her as Tinkerbell, which she captioned, "Thank you for all of the love. It, truly, means so much to me. I’m excited for this next adventure! Artist: @alexcollectsofficial."

In addition to Shahidi, Jude Law will also be joining the cast as Captain Hook. Ever Anderson is starring as Wendy and Alexander Molony will be the main character, Peter Pan. A release date hasn't been confirmed yet, but David Lowery will be directing the film while Jim Whitaker will serve as producer.

Shahidi's historic casting comes over a year after actress Halle Bailey was cast to play Ariel in the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, proving that Disney is making significant progress when it comes to diversity and inclusion in their films (and it's about time).

We'll be counting down the days until we see Yara transform into our favorite tinker fairy!


 

 


nakeisha campbell bio

Associate Editor, News and Entertainment

Nakeisha has been interviewing celebrities and covering all things entertainment for over 8 years, but she has also written on a wide range of topics, like career...