All the Snow White controversies explained as Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot face backlash

First reactions have landed for Disney’s latest big-budget release Snow White, with the movie being branded one of the studio’s ‘strongest ever’ live-action remakes.

Critics have largely praised leading lady Rachel Zegler as ‘enchanting’, called the film a ‘visual feast’ and so far complimented the screenplay after reports of the traditional fairy tale’s storyline being updated.

But it’s been hard to shake the feeling that Snow White has seemed like a poisoned apple ahead of its fast-approaching release, given the fierce and consistent ‘woke’ backlash its faced.

The film will finally open in cinemas on March 21, after being pushed a full year from its original 2024 slot thanks to the extensive effects of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

Disney has raised eyebrows in recent days with its decision not to roll out the red carpet for the movie at a glitzy premiere in London, as would usually be expected, instead opting for a smaller, far less media-focused event in Segovia, Spain on Wednesday night.

The evening’s celebrations had plenty of younger fans in attendance and were held at Alcázar de Segovia in a nod to the 1937 animated original, as it served as the inspiration for the castle featured in Snow White.

And it was largely the same at Saturday’s world premiere in Los Angeles, which also had no regular red carpet media line, in order to prevent its stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot from needing to answer any questions on the fly.

While calling the premiere ‘scaled back’ back not be entirely accurate, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Disney said it chose ‘a more celebratory, family-friendly afternoon event to match the tone and target audience for the film’ – which is, lest we forget, mainly aimed at those young enough to be more interested in the magic than the media frenzy surrounding Snow White.

But this is far from being the first or last headache that this mega-budget Disney ‘reimagining’ has faced on its long and very rocky road to release.

Ever since 2021 it seems that the studio has been forced to confront near-constant criticism and backlash that largely revolves around the culture war of today, which sees a sharp divide over the term ‘woke’ – and whether or not it’s positive to be classified as such.

The sniping about Snow White first began nearly four years ago when West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, was cast as Disney’s original princess, most famous for having ‘skin as white as snow’.

Such ugly complaints echoed those that Halle Bailey faced after being picked to play Ariel in The Little Mermaid, with some fans being left outraged at Disney’s push for more culturally representative storytelling (perish the thought that talent should be an important factor in the decision).

Disney then hit a more tricky obstacle to navigate when Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage branded the studio ‘backwards’ for their decision to remake Snow White.

The actor, who has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia,said he 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 added on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in January 2022.

Dinklage argued Disney was ‘progressive in one way’ and yet still making a ‘backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together’.

Disney rushed to clarify that the film was ‘taking a different approach with these seven characters’ and had been ‘consulting with members of the dwarfism community’ in order to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film’.

Dinklage undoubtedly had a point given how offensive the film could seem to those in the community, depending on how sensitively Disney opted to handle the dwarfs.

As well as dropping half the film’s original title, director Marc Webb opted to portray the characters using CGI – the depiction of whom was pulled apart when the Seven Dwarfs were first unveiled in the movie’s teaser trailer in August – after erroneous reports that Disney would be using diverse ‘magical creatures’ instead.

Fans acted fast with the one show of disapproval they had, the dislike button, as the trailer attracted more than 1.4million ‘thumbs down’ from its 11million views – and a paltry 102,000 likes in comparison.

This issue was later raised again just ahead of the LA premiere, when dwarf actors expressed their fury over the use of CGI characters, calling Disney’s decision ‘discriminating in a sense’ and claiming it was detrimental to their careers.

‘I think Disney is trying too hard to be politically correct, but in doing so it’s damaging our careers and opportunities,’ bodybuilder and performer Choon Tan, 31, told MailOnline.

‘There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf in any given opportunity. As long as we are treated equally and with respect, we’re usually more than happy to take on any acting roles that are suitable for us.’ 

So far, so understandable (with the contentious issue of the dwarfs, at least) – but meanwhile the backlash had been intensifying against leading lady Zegler after a series of flippant remarks she made at D23 in 2022, which made it clear she wasn’t a fan of the original story.

The 23-year-old (then 21) drew the ire of some fans by criticising the original film – released nearly 88 years ago, and based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm – as ‘dated’.

Zegler characterised the prince in Snow White as a ‘guy who literally stalks her’ in an interview with ExtraTV, calling it ‘weird’ repeatedly, while she also revealed in a separate interview with Variety that Snow White was ‘not going to be dreaming about true love’ anymore and rather ‘about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true’.

It’s true her casual tone was perhaps a misstep, especially when Disney is usually so careful about the reverence with which it treats its animated classics – plus, its fan base is famously highly invested and protective.

The 93-year-old son of one of the 1937 film’s animators and supervising director, David Hand, also reacted sensitively to these remarks, seemingly horrified to hear of what may be sweeping changes to the original plot, telling The Telegraph Disney and his father would be ‘turning in their graves’.

And here’s where we seem to leap into the deep end of the truly baffling, for Zegler’s comments started circulating on social media, with ‘fans’ using them as justification to tear the actress down for her perceived ‘attitude’, alongside Disney, over the storyline changes.

These are storyline changes which we are still, years later, yet to be able to confirm and judge for ourselves by actually watching the movie because it’s not out yet.

But the term ‘woke’ was now firmly being co-opted by the dissatisfied, who directed a lot of their annoyance straight at Zegler, calling for her ‘destruction’ online and slamming her as ‘disgusting and unbecoming’.

Meanwhile she’d also revealed she’d been ‘scared’ by the 1937 animation and (possibly the most heinous crime of all) only watched it once, making her immediately unworthy of her casting in some Disney fans’ eyes.

She also ran into the ‘tradwife’ community online, who took it as a personal insult that Snow White would now be dreaming of something other than being a wife and mother – TikTokkers also told her that ‘criticising Disney princesses is not feminist’ and garnered millions of views and likes while doing so.

So because Zegler and Disney suggested that falling in love was no longer Snow White’s priority, it seemed like manyjumped to assume they were being judged harshly for their own personal choices.

It’s also rather ironic that until this point, Disney was usually being criticised for supposedly pushing old-fashioned ideals within its narratives – but as soon as they made a move against that, the backlash doubled.

Zegler addressed this pretty gracefully with a carefully worded response to the situation (after likely further media training from Disney) in an interview for Vogue Mexico’s March issue.

‘I interpret people’s sentiments towards this film as passion. What an honor to be a part of something that people feel so passionately about. We’re not always going to agree with everyone who surrounds us and all we can do is our best,’ she commented, as the film’s release loomed.

While you’d be forgiven for thinking that we were surely finished cataloguing Snow White’s extensive woes, the release strategy has also been further complicated by politics.

Pro-Palestinian activists have called for a boycott of the movie over Disney’s casting of Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, while others have criticised her casting as the villain.

Wonder Woman star Gadot, who has publicly advocated for Israel over the years, was so far solo and low-key on the Snow White publicity trail other than a co-presenting gig at the Oscars with Zegler, until the LA premiere.

Meanwhile, Zegler made her thoughts clear while directly promoting the film as she thanked fans for their ‘love’ in response to the trailer in the summer, before adding on X: ‘And always remember, free Palestine.’

She had also previously been forced to apologise after declaring that she hoped Trump supporters would ‘never know peace’ following the US President’s election victory in November.

So there you have it – a potted history of all the reasons Snow White has become an unfortunate magnet for controversy as we’ve moved ever closer to its release.

In some ways the film has been a lightning rod for several major issues, and in another it just shows what happens when people get a bee in their bonnet over something and sound off inside the comforting echo chamber of their social media communities.

Critics commenting positively on the film on social media have already been branded ‘Disney shills’ by disgruntled people yet to see the movie and determined to hate it, with rumblings of a review-bombing campaign planned for when the film opens on Friday.

But the furore around Snow White’s release is almost history repeating itself, given Walt Disney famously mortgaged his house to bet on his studio’s first-ever feature length animation with Snow White while naysayers dubbed it ‘Disney’s Folly’ due to the scepticism surrounding it.

As we all now know, he was proven absolutely right, building the most successful animation company in history – and come next week, audiences will finally be able to properly judge the 2025 gamble for themselves.

Snow White releases in cinemas on Friday, March 21.

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