Disney’s new live-action Peter Pan & Wendy ends a little differently than the original play, book, and 1953 animated film. In J.M. Barrie’s original story (which was first a play and then a novel), Wendy decides to take the Lost Boys back home with her to London, England. Peter flies ahead of the group to bar the window, but changes his mind when he sees Mrs. Darling crying. The Darlings agree to adopt the Lost Boys and offer to adopt Peter, but he refuses. He does promise to return for Wendy every spring. An epilogue sees Peter returning for Wendy’s daughter, Jane, and then Jane’s daughter, and so on.
Disney’s live-action Peter Pan & Wendy remake doesn’t stray too far from the original book and play. The Lost Boys stay in London with Wendy, John, and Michael, and it’s implied that the Darlings will adopt them. Peter and Wendy talk on the roof and Peter reveals he used to live in the same house. Wendy says he could stay, but he’s not ready to grow up, so he leaves with Tinker Bell. At the end of the film, he arrives back in Neverland and smiles down at Captain Hook, who emerges from the water with Smee and smiles back at Peter.
Why Did Peter Agree To Bring All The Lost Boys Back To England?
Peter agrees to bring the Lost Boys (and girls) to England with Wendy, John, and Michael, because he realizes it would be a better life for them. He also doesn’t want to make the same mistakes with them that he made with James, a.k.a. Captain Hook. He got angry with James for missing his mother, and this divided the two and ended their friendship, plus launched James into a difficult life as a pirate. When Wendy brings up her own mother in front of the Lost Boys, they start to say they miss their own mothers, reminding Peter of James.
Not wanting to completely lose more friends, and starting to understand it’s okay for the Lost Boys to miss their families, Peter decides to take them back to England. Peter also trusts Wendy, having been keeping watch over her for a long time, and knows that she will make sure the Lost Boys are safe. He can always come back and check on them, and bring them back to Neverland if they want to go.
Why Did Peter Pan Go Back To Neverland?
Though Peter accepts that his friends want parents and want to eventually grow up, he isn’t ready for that fate. Unlike Wendy and the Lost Boys, Peter indicates he had a more traumatic childhood with his mother. She yelled at him, and he ran away—an apparent departure from the original story which states Peter ran away when he was a day old because he heard his parents talking about him growing up. In Peter Pan & Wendy, Peter kept returning to the house because it was once his home.
The Peter Pan & Wendy ending implies that Peter might decide to grow up one day, but he is not yet ready to go back to where he came from or have a new mother. He would rather return to Captain Hook, who is his family now. Hook is still Peter’s oldest friend, even if the two have been at odds for years. The friendship permanently shaped the two of them. Peter’s return to Neverland is not only a return to the home he has known for most of his life, but a return to his past best friend.
Are Peter Pan & Captain Hook Friends Again?
At the end of Peter Pan & Wendy, Peter and Captain Hook aren’t fully back to being friends again, but they have at least come to an understanding. Peter apologizes to Hook for how he treated him, and Hook indicates he regrets his actions. They both realize they are still important to each other, and would rather be alive to fight each other—if they keep fighting at all—than one of them be dead. Peter even tries to save Hook’s life and is happy to see he survives. Hook says he has no happy thoughts, but it’s clear Peter comes close to making him happy.
Peter and Hook could still be friends later on down the road, after spending more time together and working through their resentment. It would be hard to be friends with someone you’ve been trying to kill for years, possibly decades. Plus, Hook is a grown-up and Peter is still a child. But they have an infinite amount of time on Neverland to remember how to be best friends again. This could be explored in a potential Peter Pan & Wendy sequel.
How Peter Pan & Wendy Changes The Original Disney Movie Ending
In Disney’s animated Peter Pan, Wendy and her brothers go home. However, the Lost Boys don’t go with them because they aren’t ready to grow up (yet). Peter and the Lost Boys return to Neverland on the pirate ship as Wendy and her parents watch through the window. It’s a relatively big departure from Barrie’s original story. Peter Pan & Wendy more closely follows the original, while paying homage to the animated version by having Peter say he’s not ready to grow up.
The Lost Boys being adopted by the Darlings gives them a satisfying happy ending, but might have seemed odd in the 1953 Peter Pan when they weren’t very fleshed out characters. Peter Pan also doesn’t show Peter and the Lost Boys arriving back in Neverland. Because Peter Pan & Wendy added a backstory about Peter and Captain Hook being friends, it was necessary to show the two seeing each other in Neverland again, giving a resolution to their story.
Another major difference between the two endings is in the Darling parents. J.M. Barrie implies in Peter and Wendy that Mrs. Darling has adventured with Peter before and the 1953 animated Peter Pan has Mr. Darling say he recognizes the flying pirate ship. Peter Pan & Wendy doesn’t have either parent make comments suggesting a past with Peter Pan, although adds Peter explaining his own past to Wendy.
