Did You Spot The Jars Of Hands In Peter Pan And Wendy?
Make no mistake, "Peter Pan and Wendy" director David Lowery definitely has an affinity for the horror genre, but he wanted to make sure that the new Disney+ children adventure wasn't as dark as it looked at first glance. Lowery's melancholy supernatural drama "A Ghost Story" starring Casey Affleck wearing a bed sheet is hauntingly beautiful, and his take on the 14th-century Arthurian adventure "The Green Knight" is steeped in some fairly gruesome imagery. The entire tale does center around a beheading, after all.
Of course, the latest adaptation of the classic children's story, starring Jude Law as Captain Hook and Alexander Molony as Peter Pan, is still a fairly lighthearted adventure. But that doesn't mean that Lowery didn't leave a few, shall we say, revolting details in the background for eagle-eyed viewers to catch. "Peter Pan and Wendy" comes out today, so be sure to check out the entire frame to see if you can spot some of the more heinous items that actually give a little more backstory to Law's more relatable, admittedly better-looking version of the swashbuckling villain.
Some of the horror elements are warranted, considering that author J.M. Barrie's original novel depicted Peter as a much more conniving, mischievous kid with a little bit of an evil streak. At a young age, Barrie also suffered a tragic loss when his older brother died in a terrible ice skating accident, a tragic demise that was more common in the mid-19th century than you might think.
It's no mystery that Captain Hook has been on the hunt for Peter ever since the boy who would never grow up lopped off his hand in a sword fight. To add insult to injury, Hook's hand was then gobbled up by a crocodile. Naturally, he wants revenge.
Captain Hook keeps a Jar of Hands in his room?
When Law was given the chance to play such a classic literary villain, he wanted to make Hook a little more complex than the versions that audiences had seen before, telling Collider in a recent interview:
"I was just conscious that I wanted to bring in all the elements. I wanted him to be sad, I wanted him to be scarred and gnarly and disgusting and scary, and funny too. Like an overheated, angry dad or uncle who, from a kid's perspective, is just really pathetic and loud."
Lowery was also present during the interview alongside Law, and the director was sure to point out that he wanted to show how Hook's deep-seated obsession with Peter had boiled over into every aspect of Hook's life. "There were so many little details that supported that such as, I don't know if you remember, but the set, your cabin, was full of all these drawings that Hook had made of ways to maybe capture Peter Pan." Law described Hook's drawings, saying they "were like little catapults and balloons with nets in them." He described Hook's mindset with an inner-monologue, saying, "'I've got to get this boy, I've got to get him.'"
Law continued, revealing a particularly disgusting prop in the background that's apparently next to a dead fairy's decaying body. "There was also, I don't know if you see ... yeah, you see the collection of hands," the actor pointed out. "Where he's obviously tried to sew something back on." That last bit of information is a frightening bit of character development for someone like Captain Hook, who has mostly been a two-dimensional character until his surprising reinvention in "Peter Pan and Wendy." Sorry Mr. Lowery, that detail is actually pretty dark, indeed.
"Peter Pan and Wendy" is now on Disney+.