Disney's Snow White Live Action Remake Casting Is Infuriating Fans - Here's Why
The next backlash over Disney's live-action remakes has arrived, with complaints arising about the casting for "Snow White."
This all kicked off when British tabloid The Daily Mail published set photos of the dwarves and a stand-in for star Rachel Zegler, who's set to play the Disney princess. The tabloid went with this subtle, understated headline: "EXCLUSIVE: Snow White and the Seven... Politically-Correct Companions? First pictures of new live-action remake of Disney classic shows stand-in princess walking with diverse band of merry men and women after row over using dwarf actors."
Again, Zegler, who has faced an unfortunate backlash of her own after being cast as Snow White, is not in the photos, and there's no confirmation from Disney as to whether or not the actors pictured are also stand-ins or the actual dwarves. It also doesn't really matter, though, because the backlash The Daily Mail is attempting to start is nonsense anyway, considering that "Snow White" is a fairytale about a princess who makes friends with a merry gang of dwarves, eats a poisoned apple, and is woken by "true love's kiss." The stature of the actors involved is a non-issue, and if there's outrage outside of The Daily Mail's article, it's pretty ridiculous.
Rachel Zegler had a response to the backlash — and is done hearing about it
Zegler, who rose to fame after starring in Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" reboot and is also set to star in the "Hunger Games" prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," did appear to address the "issue" with a pointed social media post. On July 15, Zegler Tweeted, "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 w these photos! i hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what." The post was followed by photos of her dressed as various Disney princesses throughout her childhood, including a shot of her in a Snow White costume.
Sadly, Zegler has been dealing with complaints about her casting for some time. Speaking to Vanity Fair in October of 2022, Zegler acknowledged the racist backlash that arose after she, an actress of Colombian descent, stepped into the role. "People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is—because it needed that," Zegler said pointedly. "It's an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond 'Someday My Prince Will Come.'"
Peter Dinklage got dragged into this mess, somehow
Somehow, "Game of Thrones" star and multiple Emmy winner Peter Dinklage has been dragged into the backlash as well, with his name recently trending on Twitter in regards to the movie and The Daily Mail's apparent reveal that people of all heights might be playing the dwarves. In January of 2022, Dinklage appeared on WTF with Marc Maron and pushed back against Disney's claims that this remake would be so much more modern with Zegler in the lead role — considering that they'd still be depicting people with dwarfism in an unflattering light.
""Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me," Dinklage told Maron. You're progressive in one way and you're still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing, man?" The actor said he also meant "literally no offense to anyone" and wanted to send "all love and respect to the actress and to the people who thought they were doing the right thing."
"Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox?" Dinklage concluded. "I guess I'm not loud enough."
Dinklage has been an outspoken advocate for the dwarf community throughout his career and famously turned down roles he found insulting early in his career despite desperately needing work. Perhaps Disney did listen to his publicly aired concerns — but again, we still don't even know if these are stand-ins or the real actors.
The Little Memaid also faced a racist backlash over its star
This latest outcry — or whimper, really — over a Disney princess being played by a non-white actor directly follows the outrage over Halle Bailey starring as Ariel in the recent live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid." Bailey, a young Black actress with an outstanding voice, stepped into Ariel's fins for the 2023 movie, and a certain subsect of fans were upset that a character with red hair and white skin would be played by an actress of color. There was even a particularly charming hashtag to go with the backlash: #NotMyAriel.
Bailey, a class act, told Variety that she wasn't letting the comments get to her. In 2019, Bailey said, "I feel like I'm dreaming, and I'm just grateful, and I don't pay attention to the negativity. I just feel like this role was something bigger than me, and greater, and it's going to be beautiful. I'm just so excited to be a part of it."
Now, Bailey is coming to Zegler's defense on social media. After Zegler fired off her Tweet about people taking issue with her casting, Bailey quoted it and responded, "we love you so much truly the perfect princess," complete with a heart emoji.
There are a lot of issues with Disney's live action remakes, and this isn't one of them
The frustrating thing about all of this is that there are criticisms to be made about Disney's live-action remakes and their tendency to try and wildly over-correct the perceived mistakes of the original films. A great example of this is "Beauty and the Beast," which adds in an odd subplot wherein Belle (Emma Watson) is an inventor that never actually comes to anything and spends a lot of time wildly overexplaining the classic's plot, showing us exactly how Belle's mother died (why?) and ultimately removing some of the magic from the movie. When Belle asks a hairbrush if it's a person and has to be told that not every object in the castle is magical, it just reminds the audience that all of this is beyond belief... and feels completely unnecessary.
Casting Halle Bailey or Rachel Zegler as a Disney princess — or really, anyone in basically any role — is not breaking Disney's legacy or doing anything negative. All children deserve to see Disney princesses who look like them on the big screen, and both Bailey and Zegler are phenomenally talented performers to boot. Unfortunately, though, it's more likely than not that Zegler and any future actresses of color who play Disney princesses will face manufactured outrage over their casting.
As of this writing, "Snow White" is set to release in 2024.