There’s just something about the story of Peter Pan that’s spawned countless spinoffs over the years. We’ve gotten some live-action greats like Hook, book-turned-plays such as Peter and the Starcatcher, and of course the animated 1953 Disney classic, Peter Pan. While many of the spinoffs, including the three aforementioned, focus on the life of Peter, director Livia De Paolis teamed up with Vertical Entertainment to bring audiences The Lost Girls, a new take on the classic tale.
Based on the novel by Laurie Fox, with a screenplay adaptation from De Paolis, the film will follow four generations of Darling girls as they attempt to shatter the ties of their adventures with the boy who would never grow up. Wendy (Emily Carey and De Paolis) struggles to break the bonds with Peter (Louis Partridge) for both her and her daughter, Berry (Ella-Rae Smith) before Berry gets pulled in under Peter’s spell. Will Berry be able to escape the allure of the flying boy, or will she be suckered into it just as her mother, grandmother Jane (Joely Richardson), and great-grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) were?
The trailer released today reveals a world where Peter Pan…is giving us major predator vibes. Upset that “the others” (her mom and grandma) have lied to him, Peter asks a teenage Wendy to never grow up. When Wendy begins to climb out of her teenage years, she finds a man (Parker Sawyers) much more suitable for her. The happy couple gets married, leaving Peter pouty and petty. Flash forward several years and now Jane has a (dysfunctional) family of her own. It’s then that her daughter, Berry, wakes up one night to a boy in her room — major red flag here, ladies! Hoping to escape her reality, Berry takes Peter up on his offer to whisk her away, leaving her family in the dust to discover Neverland with her new love. Wendy struggles to save her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but will she be too late? The trailer also features some incredibly wacky looking CGI flying scenes and Game of Thrones alum Iain Glen as Captain Hook, who has the hots for adult Wendy.
Don’t get us wrong, the reimagining is a bit all over the place, but the general themes centered around growing up, generational trauma, and family dysfunction are all there. The Lost Girls is definitely like nothing we’ve ever seen in the world surrounding Peter Pan, so for that, we applaud it. Check out the trailer and synopsis below and catch The Lost Girls flying into theaters and on demand June 17.
Here’s the synopsis:
Inspired by the classic tale of Peter Pan, The Lost Girls chronicles four generations of Darling women as they struggle in the aftermath of their adventures with Peter Pan (Louis Partridge) in Neverland. Like her grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) and her mother Jane (Joely Richardson) before her, Wendy (Emily Carey and Livia De Paolis) must escape Pan’s hold on her and the promise he desperately wants her to keep. As her daughter Berry (Ella-Rae Smith) comes into Peter’s orbit, Wendy must fight to save her relationship with her daughter while reconciling her legacy.