The revolving door of rebooted IPs continued spinning this weekend when Disney Plus premiered Peter Pan & Wendy, which marked the third big budget adaptation of the source material to arrive in the last 20 years alone. While none of the trio will be regarded in the future as classics, it’s safe to say that Joe Wright’s Pan will always be known as the worst.
In theory, the filmmaker behind several acclaimed prestige pictures including Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, and Darkest Hour making the leap to studio fare with a revisionist $150 million retelling of a story everyone knows inside out sounded like an enticing enough prospect, and there was also the presence of a supremely talented cast to increase expectations.
Despite Hugh Jackman’s best efforts to inhale as much scenery as humanly possible as Blackbeard, though, Pan was a disaster in every sense of the word. Panned by critics to the tune of a dismal 27 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it also ranks as one of the biggest box office bombs of all-time, with the project estimated to have lost anywhere up to $150 million for the studio.
And yet, because even the worst films in the world are capable of being placed back under the microscope at a moment’s notice, Redditors are trying to state the case for Pan‘s reappraisal, which has everything to do with Peter Pan & Wendy being the latest spin on the story to hit the marketplace.
Incredibly, people are actually supportive of the idea with the 3D experience being singled out as making it an enjoyable adventure, which is ironic when the numbers make it clear nobody was willing to pay the surcharge when it first hit the multiplex.