All About the Scandal Surrounding Disney’s Live-Action ‘Snow White’
From casting backlash to premiere changes, here’s why the ‘Snow White’ drama won’t quit
After 88 years, Disney is finally adapting Snow White into a live-action film. While this should be exciting, the news has quickly turned grumpy thanks to its controversial casting choices. Below, we have everything you need to know about the behind-the-scenes drama, including details on how star Rachel Zegler really feels about being in the film.
Why Disney’s ‘Snow White’ casting has sparked backlash
The live-action Snow White, announced in 2016, stars Zegler in the lead role. Her casting was announced five years later. Gal Gadot portrays the evil queen, Andrew Burnap is Jonathan and Martin Klebba is Grumpy, one of the seven dwarfs.
The first backlash against the film came shortly after the announcement when people criticized Disney for casting Zegler in the role over the fact that she’s Latin American, not white—like the original princess. The actress responded to these claims in July 2023 by posting pictures of herself wearing Snow White’s gown as a child and telling people, “I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what.”
Fast-forward to August 2023, when Zegler once again made headlines for her comments on the film by letting people know what she really thinks of the plot.
“I just mean that it’s no longer 1937,” Zegler told Variety. “Snow White’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love; she’s going to be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true.
“We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie,” the actress continued. “It’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful.”
A month later, the actress said that despite posting pictures in the iconic yellow, blue and red ball gown, she had only watched the 1937 film “once and never picked it up again. I’m being so serious.”
Both of these interviews caused people to voice their disdain for her handling of the film’s press, and some even went so far as to say that she didn’t deserve to call herself a feminist.
“Criticizing Disney princesses is not feminist. Not every woman is a leader. Not every woman wants to be a leader. Not every woman wants or craves power,” @CosyWithAngie commented on TikTok. “And that’s OK.”
Aside from Snow White, Zegler is best known for her work in West Side Story (2021) and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023). She is 23 years old.
Why Peter Dinklage criticized the film’s approach to the dwarfs
Another thing that has recently caught moviegoers’ attention is how the film treated its dwarfs, which they renamed “magical creatures.”
In 2022, Zegler’s Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes co-star Peter Dinklage spoke up about his thoughts on the film as someone who suffers from dwarfism.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on. Literally, no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when 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. It makes no sense to me,” Dinklage said on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. “You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f*ck*ng backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together; what the f*ck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough. I don’t know which studio that is, but they were so proud of it. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, ‘What are you doing?’”
In the live-action film, all seven dwarves are created using CGI. Andrew Barth Feldman is Dopey, Tituss Burgess is Bashful, George Salazar is Happy, Jason Kravits is Sneezy, Andy Grotelueschen is Sleepy, Jeremy Swift is Doc and Martin Klebba serves as the voice for Grumpy. He is the only actor that actually has dwarfism.
Recently, Klebba has been opening up about his experiences on the set. He even said that he was “disappointed” in Disney for deciding to scale down the premiere after all of the casting controversies.
“I’m a little bummed, but I understand it as well,” the actor told the New York Post. “Disney is one of the greatest production companies of all time, so you gotta be really careful in today’s world. So I see why they did it. I’m just still a little bummed because I was really looking forward to doing the red carpet.”
The premiere took place in Los Angeles, California, on March 15, 2025. Zegler, Gadot, director Marc Webb, producers Marc Platt and Jared LeBoff and songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul attended.
The live-action Snow White hits theaters nationwide on Friday, March 21, 2025.
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