THE BIG PICTURE
- Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare promises a dark take on the iconic character with a bloody and violent twist.
- The film stars Wendy Darling fighting against a deranged Peter Pan and features a warped reality with twisted foes.
- The upcoming movie is part of a larger horror universe, leading to a massive crossover event, Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble.
The next entry in Jagged Edge Productions’ Poohniverse of public domain horror is drawing ever closer by the day with Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. From the team behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and its 2024 sequel, the film promises a nightmarish and extremely dark take on the character originated in 1902 by J.M. Barrie, with Martin Portlock embodying his adult form. A new poster exclusively from Bloody Disgusting teases the horrors that await viewers later this year, as it introduces other cast members around the 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁er including what appears to be a monstrous rendition of Captain Hook.
Directed by Scott Jeffrey, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare stars Megan Placito as Wendy Darling who, rather than galavanting with the boy who never grew up, instead plans to fight back against the disfigured and deranged Peter Pan after he kidnaps her brother Michael. Her journey also leads her to a heroin-addicted Tinkerbell, who’s convinced the drugs are pixie dust. Judging by the poster, she’ll also encounter a warped reality from that of the original stories with twisted foes and a haunting fairground as the centerpiece. The art doesn’t shy away from the violence either, showing this will be just as bloody as its predecessors in the shared Poohniverse.
“This is tonally an extremely darker film to Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey,” Jeffrey teased to Bloody Disgusting with the release of the poster. Both the original and its sequel go to some bleak places in showing Pooh, Piglet, and friends’ violent massacres, but the director said the premise for Neverland Nightmare lent itself to a darker story and is indicative of the different types of horror the Twisted Childhood Universe will explore. “When dealing with 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren being abducted, it felt right. All of the films from our Poohniverse will feel different from the last. So, if one isn’t for you, then maybe the next will be. Peter Pan is the most vicious of them all. He is twisted, cruel, and cunning.”
‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’ Is Just One Piece of the Larger UniverseImage via Jagged Edge Productions
Rounding out the cast for Neverland Nightmare are Peter Desouza-Feighoney, Kit Green, Nicholas Woodeson, Kierston Wareing, Olumide Olorunfemi, Teresa Banham, Charity Kase, and Campbell Wallace. Peter Pan is expected to terrify viewers in time for Halloween, but this is just one step in the larger vision for Rhys Frake-Waterfield‘s shared Avengers-liked horror universe. Also due out later this year is Bambi: The Reckoning followed by Pinocchio: Unstrung early next year, which will lead into a massive crossover event, Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble. Promising a bigger budget and more iconic characters that will appear in the next wave of Twisted Childhood films, the ambitious project intends to establish a foothold for Frake-Waterfield’s public domain horror universe for years to come.
Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and the rest of the Poohniverse as it comes out. Check out the new poster above.