The Many Faces of Captain James Hook

With the release of the first promotional images of Jude Law’s Captain Hook for Disney’s upcoming Peter Pan and Wendy, there’s been a lot of complaints about both the costuming choices made and the fact that Law’s Hook bears little physical resemblance to the captain’s more “traditional” look and seems to be older than most versions with his graying locks. Some have even gone so far as to call Law’s Hook “ugly”—which I find rather unfair and even laughable. (If you find Jude Law in any role ugly, your male beauty standards are ridiculously high and I hate to think how hideous you must think most average people are.) Further, it’s a bit shallow to reduce a character completely to his physical attractiveness—especially a character as complex and complicated as Captain James Hook. Barrie’s Hook was described as being handsome, yes, but the popular vision of Hook as being an inherently “sexy” character is a fairly modern phenomenon in the story’s history—probably largely due to Jason Isaacs’ performance in the 2003 Peter Pan and, more recently, Colin O’Donoghue’s “Killian Jones” (who isn’t even technically James Hook) for Once Upon a Time. But the character has existed for close to 120 years, and in that time, he has borne many faces—some instantly recognizable as our favorite captain; others less so. He has worn a variety of colors and clothing styles, had nearly every shade of hair, and possessed varying degrees of facial hair. In fact, you may be surprised to find that the iconic waxed mustache, red coat, and ostrich plumed hat likely didn’t become mainstream until around the time Disney put out their version of the film. (That’s not to say other, previous Hooks didn’t ever have these characteristics. Only that Disney was probably the catalyst that solidified the look into the mind of the fandom.) For those who may not be as familiar with the history of the Hooks, let’s take a quick look at some of the lesser known versions of the character…some of whose influences can still be seen in Law’s Hook.

Here we see the costume design for Captain Hook by William Nicholson for the first production of Peter Pan, Duke of York's Theatre, 1904. You’ll notice the concept art doesn’t feature the bright red coat or any pluming on the tricorn hat.

You can see how this costume idea might have translated onto an actor in this image of one of the earliest actors to play Hook on stage, Robb Harwood.

Notice, he has no facial hair at all and although he looks like a gentleman, he’s far less “frilly” than the standard Hook is today.

The iconic mustache is also conspicuously absent in the silent film’s Hook, played by actor Ernest Torrence. He also still has the tricorn hat without any plumage. Note that Barrie was still alive at the time of the silent film when it came out in 1924, and some of his suggestions made it into the film.

Another early Hook, played by famed horror actor Boris Karloff for the 1950 Bernstein musical looks downright terrifying.

He has the mustache and the hair going on but I don’t know if I’d call him exactly “handsome” here.

Then we get to the 1960s. This seems to be about the time that we get the bicorn hat that Law’s Hook wears in the promotional photo. It shows up both in some scenes with Cyril Ritchard’s version of the character (notably, Ritchard was in his 60s when the film version was recorded, and his Hook has gray hair)—though he also has the red plumed hat we associate with most modern Hooks—and in Vincent Price’s stage Hook (sadly, not recorded to my knowledge).

Of course, we also get Disney’s version of Hook in 1953, and after that, we start to see more of the “iconic” Hook look that we’re used to with a few exceptions, such as Fox’s Hook from the 1990 series Peter Pan and the Pirates, who has white hair, no facial hair, and a dark navy blue/black outfit.

Despite looking more like an angry Quaker Oatmeal man than the usual Captain Hook, this guy gets a lot of love from the fandom because Tim Curry’s voice acting knocks it out of the park and personality wise, his Hook is both refined and threatening.

We also have to remember that even Hoffman’s 1991 version of the captain is likely much older than (and not quite as good looking as) he comes off as when he’s fully made up. Recall the scene near the end when he loses his wig:

And Rhys Ifans’ “prequel” Hook in SyFy’s Neverland (2011) hardly looks like a Hook at all when we first meet him.

Even after his transformation into the pirate we’re more familiar with, he still has the “wrong” hair color and no mustache.

Yet he manages to get the right “feel” for Hook, which makes up for everything else, epitomizing the messed up father figure in Peter’s life, inspiring both our sympathy and revulsion.

My point in saying all of this is not to explicitly praise Law’s Hook or make any kind of judgement—for that, we’ll have to see the film itself—but to simply remind folks that Hook has worn many faces over the years, and ultimately, what he looks like matters less than the actor and director’s grasp of who he is as a person. Hook, as a fan favorite, has some incredibly large boots to fill and whether or not Law will live up to those expectations remains to be seen. But let’s give the guy (and his character) a chance to speak for himself before we go judging too much. Some of the greatest Hooks haven’t always looked like what we’d expect him to.

The Many Faces of Captain James Hook

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