Yara Shahidi, Disney’s new Tinker Bell, has been busy in recent days speaking out against the racist backlash to her role in “Peter Pan & Wendy.”
But the “Black-ish” and “Grown-ish” star has also taken the time to celebrate the importance of her new role in the latest iteration of “Peter Pan,” and what it means for black and brown people who watch from home .
When the trailer First released in February, many online criticized the casting of Shahidi, who has a black mother and an Iranian father. Since Tinker Bell’s first on-screen portrayal in the 1924 silent film “Peter Pan,” the fairy has been portrayed exclusively by white actors in more than a dozen iterations since.
Amid the backlash, Shahidi credited Disney and “Peter Pan” director David Lowery for wanting to tell a new story.
“They wanted to bring a little new fun to this classic, but also give us the fairy tale we deserve,” Shahidi told the publication. byrdie in an interview published Tuesday. “It’s clear that they’re not just casting black and brown people to update the story. Instead, it’s about creating a story that many more people can see themselves in after we’ve been left out for so long.”
Her comments echoed her previous statements about racism directed against her and Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel in Disney’s live-action version of “The Little Mermaid.”
“I think often people think that diversity and inclusion threatens or jeopardizes the quality of the story,” Shahidi said. the hollywood reporter last week, “instead of seeing how beautifully they can be intertwined to create something that impacts more people, that allows more people to participate in the stories we love.”
He added: “What’s been beautiful is seeing the response from both of our characters and seeing how many people feel included in this fairy tale, while still keeping the magic that we love in the first place.”
The role of Tinker Bell is also a full-circle moment for Shahidi, who recently shared that she used to model for Disney as a child, showing off “the black version of a character” to help sell costumes in Disney stores.
“And to think that now I’m just Tinker Bell is really exciting,” Shahidi told the Associated Press last week at the premiere of the new Apple TV+ series “Extrapolations.” “And to see the response when they announced the Barbie doll today, the number of people saying, ‘My God, I can see a fairy that looks like me,’ I think it validates the fact that we all deserve a great fantasy life.”
“Peter Pan & Wendy” premieres April 28 on Disney+.
