It’s been a long road for Disney’s live-action iteration of Snow White starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. From Covid delays to criticism regarding the fairy tale’s depiction of little people, racist fans taking issue with Zegler’s Latina heritage, and a premiere event that excluded journalists, the production was mired in problems virtually from the time it was announced in 2016. But finally, the film itself has arrived, set to be released in theaters on March 21.
As the new Snow White heads to the big screen, here’s a breakdown of every controversy it faced along the way.
Oct. 31, 2016: Disney announces a Snow White Remake is in development
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Disney was developing a live-action musical film adaptation of its 1937 animated classic (itself an adaptation of the 1812 Brothers Grimm story), Snow White. According to the report, producer Marc Platt (who most recently worked on Wicked) was attached, Erin Cressida Wilson was billed as the screenwriter, and songwriting duo Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, Oscar winners for La La Land, were hired to create new songs for the film.
June 22, 2021: Rachel Zegler is cast as Snow White
As soon as the studio announced that Zegler, who had starred as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed 2021 remake of West Side Story, the decision was met with an onslaught of online backlash from Disney fans who didn’t believe a Latina should play a white Disney princess. The racist vitriol was reminiscent of the vile response to Halle Bailey’s casting as Ariel in the 2023 live-action remake of Little Mermaid.
Nov. 3, 2021: Gal Gadot joins Snow White as the Evil Queen
The news heralded a bold pivot for the actress who was best known for playing Wonder Woman in the DC superhero franchise (and for being one of the celebrities who ill-advisedly decided to sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” in video posted as part of a misguided effort to comfort the world during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic).
Jan. 24, 2022: Peter Dinklage criticizes Disney’s glorification of a story that presents little people in an offense light
Appearing on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Dinklage — who was born with achondroplasia, a genetic condition that causes dwarfism — and railed against Disney’s willingness to amplify a demeaning stereotype.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on,” Dinklage said. “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.”
He continued, “You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. What the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
The day after Dinklage’s comments, Disney responded with a statement to Deadline: “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. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
Jan. 31, 2022: Zegler addresses the backlash to her casting
In a Variety Actors on Actors Q&A with Andrew Garfield, Zegler recounted how the casting news “was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days because all of the people were angry.” Zegler said, “You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent, even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries. ‘Blancanieves’ [a Spanish translation of Snow White] is a huge icon, whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it…But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that.”
March 7, 2022: Snow White begins filming
After long delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the shoot kicked off in London. In a twist that augured perhaps the production wasn’t out of the woods yet, a small fire broke out on set while a stage was under construction.
Sept. 11, 2022: Zegler says the film is updating Snow White’s character for the times
Speaking to Extra in September 2022, Zegler noted that her Snow White had been modernized to reflect a different relationship with Prince Charming, who in the original story kisses the princess while she’s asleep (or unconscious).
“The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so,” Zegler said. “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird. So we didn’t do that this time. We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because, like, we cast a guy in the movie…But it’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful.”
Disney traditionalists, surprise, surprise, did not receive her comments well.
Oct. 27, 2023: The film’s release date is pushed back due to the Hollywood strikes
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snow White was originally supposed to have a theatrical release of March 22, 2024. But the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes during the summer of 2023 forced Disney to bump the release date a full year, to March 21, 2025.
When they announced the news, they also shared first-look photos from the film that revealed the seven dwarfs were animated CGI characters instead of actors. How sensitive!
Aug. 10, 2024: The film’s first trailer release sparks new backlash, this time around its stars’ political leanings
Instead of enthusiasm and anticipation for the movie, Disney’s first official Snow White trailer drop incurred the wrath of fans on either side of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Some were incensed by Gadot — an Israeli citizen who had posted on Instagram in support of her home country — others by Zegler, who had publicly voiced her support for Palestine, signing the Artists4Ceasefire letter, and sharing a message on X saying, “and always remember, free palestine.”
Nov. 15, 2024: Zegler angers conservatives with comments about President Trump
Reacting to the presidential election, Zegler posted an Instagram story about her frustration with Trump supporters. “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace,” she wrote.
Journalist Megyn Kelly responded on her Ruthless podcast, “You’re going to put out a Disney film with Snow White, a beloved American character, with a woman who hates more than half the country, the half that just elected Donald Trump?”
Zegler subsequently issued an apology, saying she had let her emotions get the best of her. “Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse,” she wrote in an Instagram story,
March 11, 2025: The Snow White premiere event is downsized
While the premiere of a big-budget, signature film like Snow White would typically warrant a red carpet full of press as well as a major afterparty with celebrities, Variety reported that Disney had decided to reduce the affair to an afternoon screening with an intimate pre-party. A source told People that this was “always the plan … as Disney has done in the past on other family films.”
Responding to the news, actor Martin Klebba, who has dwarfism and voices the CGI character of Grumpy in Snow White, told the New York Post he wasn’t disappointed in Disney but he was “disappointed in the world.”
Klebba said, “We’ve come to this place in society where people work really hard on this movie, where Marc, the director, is probably four years into putting this together, [with] the producers and Disney, and just because a couple of people have views that not everybody feels the same way, now we’re having to alter the fun part of making a movie, which is premieres.”
