Disney’s hopes for new Snow White dwarfed by ‘woke’ backlash

The launch of a live-action remake of Snow White will be scaled down after its star Rachel Zegler’s criticism of the 1937 original and rows over the seven dwarfs.

The dwarfs in the 2025 version were reworked to look more like the 1937 classic.

In 1937, Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to great fanfare as the first feature-length animated film, creating a genre of big-screen fairytale adventures and netting more than $US1 billion (currently $1.6bn) in follow-up sales and merchandise.

Now that the seemingly inevitable 21st-century live-action remake is due for cinema release, Disney’s publicity machine has been a little more coy, however.

This year’s Snow White, starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, features no dwarfs in the title, and has faced criticism over their depiction.

It will not, apparently, focus on a handsome prince pursuing the heroine. And the choice of a Latina actress portraying Snow White, and an Israeli actress as the Evil Queen, has also prompted outrage.

Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Andrew Burnap in Disney’s upcoming Snow White. Picture: Disney Enterprises, Inc

The usual blockbuster gala for its first Hollywood screening is being scaled back.

Zegler, 23, and Gadot, 39, are expected to attend and be photographed at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday, but they will not be answering questions from media outlets, Variety reported.

Snow White premiered on Wednesday night at a castle in Segovia, northwest of Madrid, Spain.

The casting of Rachel Zegler as the heroine has been criticised.

The film, which Variety reported had a budget of $US240m ($380m), is directed by Marc Webb, has been in development for nine years and has faced criticism almost from the start.

As the cast were announced and early stills and trailers released, fans accused Disney of being too “politically correct” and “woke” in its revival of an original 1812 Brothers Grimm fairytale.

A poster for the live-action Snow White, with Rachel Zegler as Snow White. Picture: Disney

Criticism was levied against the casting of Zegler, who has Colombian and Polish heritage, in the titular role, due to the character’s origins as a German princess with “skin as white as snow”.

There was also consternation at the film’s apparent reimagining of the seven dwarfs as a diverse group of “magical creatures” of all heights, races and genders.

The actor Jason Acuña – who was known as “Wee Man” in the Jackass franchise – criticised Disney for not casting dwarf actors, and Peter Dinklage, the Game of Thrones actor, voiced concern over the film perpetuating negative stereotypes of little people.

Dinklage told a podcast host in January last year: “Literally no offence to anything, but I was sort of taken aback. They were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there.”

After Dinklage’s remarks, Disney said in a statement to the chat show Good Morning America: “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.”

A scene from 1937 Disney film animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Picture: supplied

New film images of the dwarfs were subsequently released, showing them as computer-generated animated characters, who more closely resembled the famous cartoon depictions.

By then Zegler, who starred in the 2021 remake of West Side Story, had also generated a backlash by making clear she thought the original 1937 animation “dated”.

She said in a 2022 interview: “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. So we didn’t do that this time. I was scared of the original version. I think I watched it once and never picked it up again.”

Despite Snow White previously singing “some day my prince will come”, Zegler said at the D23 Disney Expo fan event that in the remake “she’s not going to be saved by the prince. She’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.”

Those comments and the trailer left many fans confused, or announcing they will only see the film to “hate-watch” it. But there have also been calls to boycott the film for political reasons due to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Gadot, who plays the villain, is an outspoken supporter of Israel, while Zegler is an advocate for a free Palestine.

Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot speak onstage during the 97th annual Oscars in Los Angeles earlier this month. Picture: Kevin Winter / Getty Images via AFP

Gadot had said she found it “delightful” to “get under the skin” of her character, but some criticised the casting of an Israeli actress in an “evil” role.

Conversely, Palestinian campaigners called for a boycott of Gadot’s films.

Zegler, meanwhile, told Variety in October that her comments about the original film had been misinterpreted, adding: “It can be very upsetting when things get taken out of context or jokes don’t land.”

Hopes of a fairytale success for the film were further dimmed when David Hand – whose father, also called David, co-directed the original animated film – described the remake as “insulting” and suggested that his father and Walt Disney would be “turning in their graves”.

The Times