I also read that Disney granted full rights to any character and story to OUAT (of course, they are basically granting it to themselves as they own ABC 😆 ) And I also agree that Disney seems to have pretty decent abilities to use Peter Pan outside just the movie ( after all, they have made a second move, they have him visiting the parks, they have a ride of his adventures in the parks- no copyright problems there). But this interview was only taken a couple days ago so I am not sure where the mix up is on the status of Peter Pan.
As I said in the beginning, I would just DIE if they did Peter Pan. With Belle and Peter in the same series they have me hooked ( no pun intended) ! Maybe it is an issue of deviating from the original story that has the copyright on it. If they are trying to put a twist on the original Peter Pan, it could be what is causing them an issue.