On Saturday, March 15, on a sunny afternoon, Disney’s “Snow White” finally had its big premiere at the Disney-owned El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. There was a brightly decorated pre-party with activities for kids. The stars of the movie, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, who had weathered respective controversies, showed up and even took pictures together, sometimes with director Marc Webb sandwiched in-between them. Instead of actual press, Disney had Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in 1989’s animated classic “The Little Mermaid,” asking questions on behalf of D23, the company’s in-house fan club. A chubby bunny hopped down the red carpet.
The premiere felt like a joyful release, or maybe a guttural scream, depending on who you talk to, and served as the culmination of a nearly 10-year journey to get this gauzy remake of Walt Disney’s original animated classic back to the big screen. That near-decade had been besieged by controversy, unforeseen setbacks and dire complications. But on that Saturday, there was nothing more to do. Days before the movie would be released to the public, “Snow White” was finally done. Relief — or was it exhaustion? — could be felt by all. “Everybody just wants it to be over,” said one person with knowledge of the situation.
Once upon a time …
For many years, Disney considered “Snow White” sacred text.
The 1937 original was the first-ever feature-length animated film, a dizzying technical and artistic triumph that earned Walt Disney a special achievement Academy Award — actually it was one full-sized Academy Award and seven smaller awards, presented to him by Shirley Temple. At the time, nobody believed in the film’s potential success. Other studio heads scoffed and Walt himself worried about the movie’s style and emotional heft. The media dubbed the project “Disney’s Folly.” When it opened wide the following year, it became the highest grossing film of 1938 and the most successful animated film for the next 55 years.
“Snow White” is largely considered one of the greatest animated films of all time and is deeply important to the Walt Disney Company, who rereleased the movie theatrically every few years following its initial debut. (The last major rerelease was in 1993.) There have been “Snow White”-inspired theme park attractions, including the recently redone Snow White’s Enchanted Wish at Disneyland, and a number of spinoff projects, like the animated series “The 7D” and a live stage show that was performed at Radio City Music Hall in 1979.
When two other studios rushed dueling live-action “Snow White” projects into theaters in 2012, Disney stayed out of it. Disney started their trend of live-action adaptations of animated classics, in earnest, back in 2010 with the $1 billion-grossing “Alice in Wonderland.” It continued with projects like “Maleficent” and “Cinderella.” And finally, in 2016, it was reported that “Snow White” was in development, with Erin Cressida Wilson writing and “La La Land” songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul providing new tunes. (All remained on board until the final film.) By 2019, director Marc Webb had signed on, with 2021 seeing Greta Gerwig board the project as a screenwriter. Gerwig ultimately wound up with an “additional literary material” credit alongside heavyweights like “Mufasa” screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and “Cinderella” scribe Chris Weitz. Hey, it’s not a happily ever after for everybody.
A history of controversy
Almost from the start, “Snow White” found itself in hot water.
In June 2021, Rachel Zegler, hot off of landing the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” was cast as Snow White. (“West Side Story” didn’t open until December 2021.) Of course, racists took issue with the casting of Zegler, whose mother is from Colombia, because Snow White, traditionally, has “skin as white as snow.” She spoke to Buzzfeed around the time of “West Side Story’s” release, remarking, “There’s not much I can say about it besides the fact that Snow White has constantly been criticized — even though she’s the original Disney princess and we love her so much — but criticized for existing solely for a prince, existing solely to be rescued. And I think that our director, Marc Webb, and everyone who’s working on this film has really taken her narrative and turned it into something that’s a lot stronger. And I’m very, very excited to be able to bring that to life.”
It was the first of many comments about “Snow White” that fans would soon point to as being out-of-touch and “woke.”
In early 2022, Peter Dinklage, star of “Game of Thrones” and “Cyrano,” accused Disney of reinforcing stereotypes when it came to the use of the dwarfs. “I was a little taken aback by [the fact] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” Dinklage said while on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast. “But you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You’re progressive in one way, but you’re still making that f–king backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave. What the f–k are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
Disney quickly responded to Dinklage’s concerns, releasing an official statement through the Disney-owned “Good Morning America” that said, “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.” At the time, the dwarfs were being referred to as “magical creatures” in cast breakdowns.
Filming took place from March to May 2022, with Gal Gadot cast as the Evil Queen.
A first look at footage from the film was showcased at 2022’s D23 Expo, with a release date of 2024 announced. On the red carpet at the D23 Expo, Zegler told Extra, “The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. We didn’t do that this time!” Zegler’s comments were interpreted by some, including conservative commentators, as attempting to distance herself from the original movie while trying to sell her new, contemporized version. “Disney is trying a really interesting marketing strategy where the star of the new ‘Snow White’ spends a year before the movie’s release publicly talking about how much she despises ‘Snow White,’” sneered Matt Walsh on social media. Packaged clips of various comments that Zegler had made to reporters about the old-fashioned-ness of the animated classic circulated on social media.
The controversy surrounding Zegler and the movie got to be so deafening that Disney moved the release date for “Snow White” a full year, from March 2024 to March 2025. Additional reshoots occurred last summer, completing photography that had initially come to a close more than two years earlier in the summer of 2022. “Snow White” was endless.
More arrows
On Oct. 27, 2023, the first official image from the film was released, featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, now brought to life via the magic of computer animation (see above). A first teaser was released on YouTube in August 2024 and was, at the time, the most disliked trailer ever, with more than one million dislikes logged in the first three weeks.
It wasn’t until November 2024 that a full trailer would be screened at D23 Brazil and later attached to copies of “Wicked.” The response was … unkind. British newspaper The Guardian wrote that the trailer presented “arguably the ugliest thing ever committed to screen,” adding that “the design of the new dwarves feels like something that would be deliberately shown to prisoners of war to break their spirit.”
Also in November 2024, Zegler courted more controversy by writing her response to Trump’s re-election. “May Trump supporters … and Trump himself never know peace,” she wrote on a now-deleted Instagram post. She issued a hasty apology, saying, “I would like to sincerely apologize for the election post I shared on my Instagram last week. I let my emotions get the best of me.”
Zegler has also spoken out on wanting a ceasefire in the Middle East and for wanting a “free Palestine.” Gadot, meanwhile, had served in the Israeli army as a young woman. “I stand with Israel, you should too,” Gadot wrote on Instagram in October 2023. “The world cannot sit on the fence when these horrific acts are happening.”
All of the Zegler-focused controversy may have hurt her career, or at least her standing with Disney. One person with knowledge of the situation said that she “is probably not high on Disney casting wish lists.” Another top agent pointed to the fact that she has essentially been done with “Snow White” since 2023 and not popped up “on a studio list since.”
It also opens up the question of how much should a star be penalized for simply speaking her mind. A top producer said, “They’re in more constant contact with the public, but that opens more time/opportunities to say things and have opinion sway. That’s why we are seeing this type of situation happen more often. She’s still talented — and so many other stars just add more to the bigger question for studios: Are they going to change protocols about their stars’ image while in production? Or can they?”
It’s worth noting that recently, Zegler has focused her talents on the stage. She’s currently starring in the buzzy “Romeo + Juliet” on Broadway as Juliet and just secured her West End debut in the upcoming “Evita” in the title role.
Out of the woods
Earlier this year, things seemed to thaw in the enchanted forest.
Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler appeared together as presenters at the Oscars, a show that Disney produces. They both did select interviews on their own. On March 12, as part of the film’s European premiere, Zegler performed outside of the Alcázar of Segovia in Spain, a castle that served as inspiration for the animators on the original “Snow White.” After the Hollywood premiere, Zegler attended a special crafts day at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where she hugged little girls dressed as Snow White, seemingly embracing her new life as a Disney Princess. Behind her stood Michael Graves’ iconic Team Disney building, with its roof held up by statues of the seven dwarfs.
And the response from early screenings seems warmer than what Disney was bracing for. Sure, the dwarfs are being singled out for being horrifying. (“There are … too many pores on the fully animated dwarfs, who bound into the movie with noses the size of pears,” wrote L.A. Times critic Amy Nicholson.) But the rest of the movie is begrudgingly accepted for its simplicity and sweetness. “The best Disney live-action remake in a decade (not that that’s a particularly high bar to clear), ‘Snow White’ adapts the broad strokes of the 1937 original, while fleshing out its themes of kindness,” Siddhant Adlakha wrote for IGN.
TheWrap’s William Bibbiani praised Zegler for being just about perfect in the title role, writing that she “has walked right out of the classic cartoon, with a pitch perfect singing voice, spot-on physicality and a theatrical, emotional performance that resonates.”
The box office prospects for “Snow White” are more limited, with a predicted opening weekend closer to 2019’s “Dumbo” than, say, 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” – good (they’ll take it), not great. This is especially true if you consider the movie’s reported $250 million budget (some have it closer to $270 million).
But for those that have been working tirelessly to market “Snow White,” all that matters is that it’s finally coming out. They did what they could. They suffered the slings and arrows from a controversy-choked press tour and a problematic production. And here they are, at the edge of the forest, with a brand-new live-action Disney remake, one that can hopefully inspire plenty of merchandise sales and maybe a new theme park attraction or two. But the odds of ever returning to the fairy tale world of “Snow White” are slim-to-none. This won’t inspire a sequel like “Maleficent” or “Alice in Wonderland” did. Even if “Snow White” made $1 billion, nobody is taking a second bite of this poisoned apple.
Umberto Gonzalez contributed to this story.
