Watch: Rachel Zegler Responds to Backlash Over ‘Snow White’ Remake
Disney was simply wishing for another box office hit with its latest live-action remake of a beloved animated classic.
Instead, almost as soon as the plan for Snow White was announced in 2021, naysayers started mining the production for controversy. And they didn’t have to dig deep.
Starting with racist backlash on day one over the casting of Rachel Zegler as the princess with “skin as white as snow“—as the Brothers Grimm described her in their 1812 fairy tale and so was perpetuated by the 1937 Disney film—it’s almost as if an evil queen was out to get the movie.
There was even a literal fire on the set when filming got underway in London in March 2022.
But instead of any nonsensical controversy peaking early and dissipating by the time the film neared its March 21 theatrical release (after a year-long delay due to the actors’ strike in 2023), noise about an allegedly troubled production only got louder, prompting speculation that audiences had already been poisoned against the new Snow White.
And it’s never a great sign when a film’s leading ladies are rumored to be at odds. (Though there is no evidence that Zegler and costar Gal Gadot ever clashed on set or otherwise.)
Disney never commented on rumors of internal discord, leading prognosticators to wonder if the studio was whistling past the box office graveyard.
Snow White ultimately earned mixed reviews from critics and grossed an estimated $43 million domestically during its opening weekend, taking in $87.3 million worldwide. So not exactly a lump of coal, but not exactly a bag full of diamonds, either, considering the film reportedly cost $270 million to make.
But whether or not the film’s rough PR journey took a bite out of its box office, there’s no escaping that the narrative surrounding Snow White may not have been the fairest of them all.
Here’s a guide to all the issues—real and imagined—that sullied Snow White upon release:
Sami Drasin/Courtesy of Disney
Similar to what happened when Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid—a Black actress playing a cartoon white redhead— there were some loud Internet types who didn’t approve of Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent on her mom’s side, playing Snow White in Disney’s live-action remake.
As in, the fictional character who only has any color because the Brothers Grimm gave her skin “as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony” in their 19th-century fairy tale.
“Yes I am snow white no I am not bleaching my skin for the role,” she wrote in a since-deleted post on social media, per the Wall Street Journal. Zegler also called the armchair critics “losers obsessed with maintaining the bloodline purity of a cartoon princess.”
In a conversation with Andrew Garfield for Variety in 2022, Zegler acknowledged the “angry” people who made her a trending topic.
“We need to love them in the right direction,” she concluded. “At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”
The Westside Story alum did thumb her nose at the trolls again, tweeting in 2023, “extremely appreciative of the love i feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting.”
Peter Dinklage, who was born with a genetic condition that causes dwarfism, wanted to be clear that he had no issue with actors taking on roles that don’t line up with their own inherent characteristics, but dwarfs, really, in this day and age?
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on,” he said on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in January 2022. “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 continued, “You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f–king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. What the f–k are you doing, man?”
Disney seemingly heeded the Game of Thrones actor’s objection forthwith.
“To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film,” the studio said in a statement the day after the episode dropped, “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.”
There were other actors with dwarfism, however, who didn’t sign on to Dinklage’s lament.
Dylan Postl told DailyMail.com in response that he was “sick to [his] stomach” because there may have been “seven roles for dwarfs that can’t get normal acting roles, or very few and far between roles, and now they are gone because of this guy.” He added, “I know me and six other little people who would love this role. Disney, call me. This would be a dream role for me. I am begging for one.”
Actor Jeff Brooks felt Disney had “been too quick” to respond, telling the Mail, “I am hoping they cast little people and give them work.”
Ultimately, actors of varying heights got voice work: The Seven Dwarfs in 2025’s Snow White are all CGI characters.
And when a leaked photo from the set of seven actors—some men, some women—caused another uproar among those who assumed Disney had left Dopey, et al., out of the remake, Disney promptly released a photo of Zegler in character standing with the CGI septet.
Snow White, er, purists also had an issue when Zegler said that the remake was going to update some of the 1937 film’s more archaic aspects.
“There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird!” the New Jersey native told Extra in September 2022. “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.”
Au contraire, according to naysayers suspicious of any tweaks to the story. (Which, incidentally, was already heavily tweaked on its first journey from German fairy tale to Disney cartoon.)
There was nothing wrong with the trailer for Snow White as far as trailers go. The problem was that its August 2024 release triggered all manner of discourse about Zegler and Israeli costar Gal Gadot’s respective stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gadot, who plays Snow White’s Evil Queen stepmother, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on her home country. Zegler, meanwhile, signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter to then-President Joe Biden in support of ending Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza and concluded a social media post in August 2024 with, “always remember, free Palestine.”
None of that had anything to do with Snow White, but it sowed the seeds of rumored discord between the film’s leading ladies that has yet to let up.
Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images
In a very textbook bit of synergy, Gadot and Zegler presented together at the Oscars—which aired March 2 on Disney-owned ABC—but did not do a lot of press together.
Still, they were all smiles—and posing for pictures in the same frame—at the Snow White premiere two weeks later.
n Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney
One would think the Snow White world premiere would be a tentpole red carpet event on Disney’s calendar, but, according to Variety, the studio scaled back to a lower-key daytime pre-party on March 15, followed by an afternoon screening with no press on the carpet other than photographers and an in-house crew.
“It’s going to be at the El Capitan, which is cool,” Martin Klebba, who voiced Grumpy in the film and also played one of the dwarfs in 2012’s Mirror Mirror, told The Hollywood Reporter beforehand. “But it’s basically going to be a pre-party, watch the movie and that’s it…Because of all this controversy, they’re afraid of the blowback from different people in society.”
THR noted, however, that Klebba wasn’t privy to the premiere plans or any behind-the-scenes reasoning.
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
Zegler did not mention Gadot in a March 20 Instagram post on the eve of the film’s release in which she called making Snow White a “life-changing experience” and shouted out “the greatest crew in the world.” Nor did she mention anyone by name, though she did write that she “completely fell in love with this group of people I got to work with for three magical summers in london.”
Still, online detectives looking to fracture the fairy tale took the omission of Gadot as a snub, with one writing on X (per a Spanish-to-English translation), “Disney is having a hard time trying to debunk the Rachel Zegler-Gal Gadot feud because Rachel posted 19 photos on Instagram thanking her co-stars for helping her grow during the 4-year process, but she didn’t mention or post any photos of Gal.”
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