As time passes, the failure of Disney’s live-action Snow White feels more like an anomaly. Last year’s live-action Lilo & Stitch was a roaring success, with a sequel on the way, and hopes are high for Moana and Tangled (maybe a bit less so for that recently announced Beauty and the Beast Gaston spin-off). And now there’s a new project on the table: Tink, a live-action series starring Peter Pan‘s fairy sidekick, Tinker Bell.
“Series” is key, because instead of a big-screen feature, it’s a streaming show on Disney+. Disney hasn’t shied away from trying different formats with its valuable IP; fans will recall that the animated Moana 2 was originally slated to be a series but was instead retooled into a blockbuster theatrical release. But so far, its live-action remakes have all been on the big screen.
As Deadline reports, Tink (intriguingly described as “a drama series”) comes from Liz Heldens (The Orville, Will Trent, Friday Night Lights) and Bridget Carpenter (11.22.63, Dead Like Me, Friday Night Lights). The trade notes that a live-action feature starring Reese Witherspoon, also titled Tink, was in development over a decade ago, with a “retool” in 2021, and that “the studio has been plotting an updated version of the classic character originally created by J.M. Barrie for some time, and it is a major project for the streamer.”
That Disney would want to center a project on the character, first popularized under the Disney umbrella in the 1953 animated film, isn’t surprising; it’s the streaming element that’s novel here. You have to wonder: if Tink becomes a hit, will the studio turn to some of its vast library of material to create other shows?
That could include titles already lingering in the live-action remake queue, including the long-gestating Bambi movie or the recently declared DOA Robin Hood remake—or even Hercules, Cruella 2, an Aladdin spin-off, The Sword in the Stone, The Black Cauldron, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Prince Charming riff, and The Aristocats—and that’s an incomplete list of what’s been mentioned so far. You know they’ll get around to Frozen eventually, as just one outstanding example.
What do you think of a Tink drama series? Will this help Disney keep its live-action remake factory going strong?
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