Behind The Scenes Of The 'Snow White' Debacle
Image Source: IMDb
The 2025 live-action remake of Disney's Snow White has been plagued by controversy ever since its announcement. The film, directed by Marc Webb and starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, has been hit by criticism, online backlash, harassment, and even death threats leading up to and even after its premiere.
Immediately upon its announcement, Rachel Zegler, best known for her award-winning performance in 2021’s West Side Story, began to receive an alarming level of hate from online commenters due to her not appearing “white” enough for the role. The treatment of Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, isn’t all that dissimilar from what Halle Bailey faced after appearing in the live-action The Little Mermaid in 2023.
Her own comments have further fueled the fires, not just in response to her online critics, who she called “losers,” but also in regards to both the original film and the political situation unraveling at the time. Backlash arose following Zegler’s insistence that the new film wouldn’t be as outdated as the original and that Snow White was “not going to be saved by the prince.”
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age Source: IMDb
Zegler has similarly been very outspoken about both her feelings toward Donald Trump and her support of Palestine. Behind the scenes, more death threats began to arise against co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli. Most recently Jonah Platt, son of the film’s producer Marc Platt, has publicly blamed Zegler for the movie’s poor performance at the box office.
However, the film’s issues extended far beyond the two main actresses. The movie, which famously features seven dwarf characters, used CGI to portray the dwarves. This led to increased criticism of the film, with Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, who himself has dwarfism, calling the film “backwards” and criticizing the double standard of a progressive take on Snow White but continued stereotypes for the dwarves.
On top of the countless controversies, the film also suffered from delays, production challenges and industry strikes, as well as a budget estimated as high as $270 million. Upon the film’s release, it was hit by largely unimpressive reviews and became a box office bomb, with Rachel Zegler’s performance ultimately being considered the film’s biggest redeeming factor.
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