Tinker Bell live action streaming series in the works at Disney
After two previous attempts with big-name stars, Disney is again trying to launch a live action Tinker Bell project.
All it takes it is a little faith, trust and fairy dust!
The long-gestating Tinker Bell live action project is set to fly … again.
The iconic classic character will be developed into a TV series for Disney’s streaming platform, with Liz Heldens and Bridget Carpenter attached as writers and producers. The pair had previously worked together on Friday Night Lights.
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Tinker Bell was created by J.M. Barrie for his 1904 Peter Pan play and was further popularised by Disney’s 1953 animated feature Peter Pan.
While Tink is best known in her animated form, she has appeared in live action form before – Julia Roberts portrayed the character in Hook in 1991, Ludivine Sagnier in Peter Pan in 2003 and Yara Shahidi in Peter Pan & Wendy in 2023.
The Tink streaming series is the latest iteration of Disney’s live action ambitions with Tinker Bell.
In 2010, Disney announced it was developing a Tinker Bell live action rom-com with Elizabeth Banks. After that project sputtered and went nowhere, five years later, Reese Witherspoon was to produce and star in another version, which never eventuated
Disney went full-tilt with live action and CGI remakes of its animated classics after the success of Alice in Wonderland in 2010, which grossed over $US1 billion worldwide.
Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast soon followed, and in 2019, it released four live action remakes in cinemas – The Lion King, Aladdin, Dumbo and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. The Lion King did $US1.6 billion at the box office despite mixed reviews.
In the post-pandemic era, like other genres, further live action remakes struggled to attract the same level of interest. Snow White was widely panned and a commercial bomb.
However, the 2025 Lilo & Stitch remake, which had originally being developed as a straight-to-streaming release, was rerouted into cinemas and was a huge success, the first Disney live action remake to gross over a billion dollar since The Lion King. A sequel was quickly rushed into pre-production.
Lilo & Stitch’s triumph also un-suspended other planned remakes which had been put on pause after Snow White’s drudging, including Tangled.
Later this year, Disney will release a Moana live action remake which cast Australian actor Catherine Laga’aia in the lead. The studio is optimistic about its financial performance given the popularity of Moana, which is one of the most watched original features on its streaming platform.
The Moana animated sequel of 2024 also performed above expectations, selling more than a billion dollars of tickets. That film had started life as a streaming series before it was retooled for the cinema.
Also in the works are live action or CGI remakes of Bambi, Hercules, Cruella 2 and a Gaston spin-off.
