Hugh Jackman Is Barely Recognizable As Blackbeard In The First Pictures From ‘Pan’

Hollywood proves that it still loves a gritty reimagination of a classic fairy tale with the title shortened to make it sound tougher in Pan, which is of course short for “Peter Pan” in Warner Bros and director Joe Wright’s new take on the public domain property. It’s also Spanish for “bread,” but that’s neither here nor there. Today, Entertainment Weekly has a batch of new pictures, including your first look at Levi Miller as Peter (below) and Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard. Bro, that’s not even a beard, it’s a Van Dyke.

And no, that’s not a misprint, the pirate villain in Pan isn’t Captain Hook, because this is an origin story, you see. Apparently even characters who live in a mythical world where no one ages have origins.

For comparison, here’s the Blackbeard one sheet from history (Edward Teach):

Hugh could use a few more lit fuses in his hair. As for the movie, here’s the rundown:

Pan (out July 17) takes the J.M. Barrie mythos and shuffles the deck, outfitting Jackman with a flying ship and a diabolical Vandyke as the dreaded pirate Blackbeard, whose men have been kidnapping young wartime orphans [WWII, specifically] —including a certain Peter (Levi Miller, left)—from their beds. Meanwhile, Captain Hook is neither a captain nor behooked, but played by Garrett Hedlund as a dashing Indiana Jones-like figure. Says director Joe Wright, “This isn’t exactly the Neverland story you know.” [EntertainmentWeekly]

Well I guess this isn’t my grandma’s Peter Pan then, is it. In fact, it’s a gritty origin story with a Holocaust twist (degree of difficulty 3.2). Of course the studios were climbing over each other trying to make it. I’m half expecting a subplot where a cool black guy teaches schlubby Peter to dance.

(Patton Oswalt’s final word on origin stories).