Live-Action ‘Snow White’ Finally Arrives After At Least Seven Controversies

Disney’s latest version of Snow White finally hits theaters this weekend after a series of production controversies that weren’t anything to sing and whistle about.

The new, live action/CGI hybrid film (all seven of the dwarves are CGI; more on that later) stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Disney first announced it back in 2016, and cast Zegler in 2021. That’s when the controversies began.

Skin as white as snow

Many on social media (just like with the Little Mermaid remake) were angry about Zegler’s casting, getting caught up in the “skin as white as snow” line. Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, fired back at those people on social media hours after the casting announcement, saying on social media platform X: “yes i am snow white no i am not bleaching my skin for the role.”

The D23 2022 interview

 Zegler and Gadot teamed up in 2022 to promote the film at the D23 Expo, a Disney fan event. Both actors highlighted how the new movie would be a fresh take on the old fairy tale:

“And so when we came to reimagining the actual role of Snow White, it became about ‘The fairest of them all’ meaning ‘Who is the most just?’ and who can become a fantastic leader,” Zegler said. “And the reality is Snow White has to learn a lot of lessons about coming into her own power before she can come into power over a kingdom.”

Gadot added: “The fact that she’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s the proactive one, she’s the one who sets the terms, is what makes it so relevant to where we are today.”

Zegler and Gadot caught a lot of flak for those comments about modernizing the tale. Zegler also experienced backlash for her remarks about only having seen the original cartoon once as a kid. Many on X thought the role should have gone to one of the “MILLIONS of women who loved the character.”

More Rachel Zegler interviews

Shortly after D23, Zegler told Variety Snow White wouldn’t be “dreaming about true love” and told Extra TV she felt like the love story from the 1937 original made the prince out to be a “stalker.” Hardcore fans took that about as well as a rotten apple, and one woman even made a TikTok about how “criticizing Disney princesses is not feminist.”

No more dwarves

Aside from the interviews, this version of Snow White also made news for the decision to animate all the dwarves.

This controversy started in 2022, when Peter Dinklage brought up the remake on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.

“I was a little taken aback,” Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, said. “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. You’re progressive in one way, but you’re still making that fucking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. … Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

Disney addressed this controversy and said the filmmakers were “consulting with members of the dwarfism community.” The decision was later made to make the dwarves CGI, and any mention of the dwarves was removed from the 2025 film’s title.

Martin Klebba, who voices Grumpy in the film and played Marty in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, defended Disney’s choice ahead of the film’s March 15 premiere.

“You could have tried to maybe find seven little people. But you’ve also got to find seven little people who could act and have good chemistry together,” he told the New York Post.

Scaled-back premiere and star politics

Speaking of that March 15 premiere — Disney scaled back the Hollywood premiere last week and didn’t roll out a red carpet with media interviews. Disney has not commented so far, but the more Disney-friendly premiere was probably due to previous controversies plus Zegler’s and Gadot’s personal stances on the Israel-Hamas war.

Zegler has promoted “free Palestine” posts on social media, and wrote “F*** Trump” and “may Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace” on social media shortly after the 2024 presidential election.

Gadot, who is Israeli and Jewish and served a mandatory two-year stint in the Israel Defense Forces, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel on social media since October 7.

The narrative around Zegler and Gadot is that they hate each other because of this, but if that’s true, they’re great at staying professional. They appeared together earlier this month to present at the Oscars and promote the film.

Despite all this, the film will still probably clean up at the box office. You don’t need a magic mirror to see that.