While there is the occasional endorsement, many of the highest upvoted responses dissect and debunk the theory, with the most popular of all suggesting that the original story is even darker. This anonymous Redditor posited that Peter Pan regularly kills off the Lost Boys as they age, concluding, “Peter basically culls the boys … in order to keep the group composed of only kids.” Redditor u/alexxerth presented a rebuttal to this very dark take, however, saying, “I really would love to see where this so[-]called ‘original story’ came from though, because it seems you’re basing it entirely on the word ‘thin’ which doesn’t suggest he kills them, just that he got rid of them somehow, which is later expanded on to be sent back home.”
Speaking of the Lost Boys being sent back home, one of the most logical arguments against the theory comes from Redditor u/TheMightyBarbarian, who shot down the whole ordeal, saying, “This … ignores the ending of the movie. … They go back home so they didn’t die.” The counterpoint is echoed by u/3zekiel, who added, “It gets really annoying to see all these theories that blatantly ignore the important scenes that debunk this s**t.” In the movie, things do end happily ever after — with the children very much alive in the real world. As is so often the case with fan theories, this one makes a strong initial case, but when you take the whole body of evidence into consideration, it doesn’t stick the landing.
