A Timeline of ‘Snow White’ and Its Many Controversies
Enough to make anybody want a bite out of a poisoned apple.
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The drama surrounding Snow White is enough to make anybody want to take a bite out of a poisoned apple. Disney’s live-action film has become so fraught with controversy that the premiere on March 15 will be scaled back and exclude pesky, inquisitive press from the red carpet. From racist attacks on the film’s Latina lead, Rachel Zegler, to controversy over how the film is portraying its seven dwarfs to Gal Gadot’s pro-Israel stance — there’s plenty to avoid addressing ahead of the film’s release. And after West Side Story and Shazam, Zegler and her bob are probably wishing on that well for a movie with a non-problematic co-star. Below, a full timeline of the various controversies surrounding the film over the course of its development, filming, and release.
October 2016: Plans for a live-action remake of 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were reported by The Hollywood Reporter, with Erin Cressida Wilson in talks to write the script. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were attached to write new music, with Marc Platt, of Wicked and Ben fame, onboard to produce.
June 2021: Rachel Zegler is cast as Snow White. The news resulted in backlash from racist Disney fans and right-wing grifters, who took umbrage with Zegler, who is Latina, playing a character associated with being the “fairest of them all.” The conservative backlash echoed similar vitriol targeting Halle Bailey upon her casting in 2023’s The Little Mermaid, as well as the boycotts of 2017’s Beauty and the Beast after the director teased an “exclusively gay moment.”
November 4, 2021: Gal Gadot is cast as the Evil Queen, despite her work in Red Notice.
January 14, 2022: During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Peter Dinklage criticizes the planned film, calling it a “backwards story” on account of its depiction of the seven dwarfs. “There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on. 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 said. “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 soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough. I don’t know which studio that is, but they were so proud of it. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, ‘What are you doing?’” Dinklage would go on to star with Zegler in 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
January 25, 2022: Disney responds to Dinkalge’s comments in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “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,” it states. “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
January 28, 2022: Following Dinklage’s comments and Disney’s response, other actors with dwarfism countered his perspective. Dylan Postl, who plays Hornswoggle in the WWE, told the Daily Mail in part, “It’s not helping our community, it’s taking jobs away from our community that are very few and far between as it is.” Katrina Kemp, who has acted on Netflix’s GLOW, also said, “It’s a missed opportunity to make a movie with seven little people where they actually have intended characters. There will have been people who gladly would have taken those roles.”
January 31, 2022: During her Variety “Actors on Actors” interview with Andrew Garfield, Zegler addresses her casting. “Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me,” she says. “You don’t normally see Snow Whites who are of Latin descent. Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries. Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimms’ 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. When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry.”
September 11, 2022: In an interview with Extra at the 2022 D23 Expo, Zegler describes how the film will differ from the more antiquated original. “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. Weird! Weird. So we didn’t do that this time,” she states. “We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude … But it’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful … All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby! It’s an inner journey that she goes on to find her true self and she meets a lot of people along the way that makes the journey really incredible.” Her comments were, of course, used by the anti-woke mob of far-right pundits to continue to stir up backlash against the film and Zegler’s casting.
July 14, 2023: On-set photos leak in the Daily Mail that appear to show the seven dwarfs being portrayed by one actor with dwarfism and six actors — who are not little people — of various genders and races, fanning the flames of the film’s continued backlash. After originally denying the authenticity of the photos, Disney ultimately confirmed that they were from its set but featured stand-ins and weren’t official photos.
July 15, 2023: Rachel Zegler once again addresses the attacks on her in a tweet reading, “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. I really, truly do not want to see it. So I leave you [with] these photos! I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what.” The attached photos show Zegler as a child dressed as different Disney princesses, including Snow White.
October 27, 2023: Amid the SAG-AFTRA strike, Disney pushes the film’s release date back from March 2024 to March 2025 but shares a first look image that reveals the seven dwarfs will be animated as CGI characters.
August 10, 2024: The release of the film’s first teaser trailer is met with calls for a boycott due to Gal Gadot’s pro-Israel stance. Gadot is Israeli, served in the IDF for two years, and has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout the genocide in Gaza.
August 12, 2024: Conversely, Zegler, who has been publicly pro-Palestine since 2021, tweets her thanks to fans, adding, “And always remember, free Palestine.”
October 2, 2024: In an interview with Variety, Zegler explains the new film’s backstory behind Snow White’s name, which had previously been a reference to her skin being “as white as snow.” “It fell back to another version of Snow White that was told in history, where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience,” she explains.
November 14, 2024: Following the re-election of Donald Trump, Zegler posts an Instagram Story expressing her frustration with the results and standing with the marginalized communities it impacts, concluding her statement, “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” The generally tame statement was still enough to rile up the likes of Megyn Kelly, who used it as another opportunity to stoke the right-wing backlash to the film. Zegler went on to apologize for her statement, saying she let her emotions get the best of her.
February 21, 2025: Disney reveals that the CGI seven dwarfs will be voiced by Andrew Barth Feldman as Dopey, Tituss Burgess as Bashful, George Salazar as Happy, Jason Kravits as Sneezy, Andy Grotelueschen as Sleepy, and Jeremy Swift as Doc. Martin Klebba, who has dwarfism, had previously been announced to be playing Grumpy.
March 11, 2025: Variety reports that Disney would be scaling back the March 15 Los Angeles premiere of the film and won’t be inviting journalists onto the red carpet. Instead, the event will only include photographers and house interviewers.
March 12, 2025: Martin Klebba (Grumpy) voices his disappointment to the New York Post about the premiere being scaled back, saying, “I’m not disappointed in Disney. I’m disappointed in the world.”
March 21, 2025: Snow White premieres. Surely, it will be the end of the discourse, right?
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