Disney’s Live-Action “Snow White” Is Planning to Put Some Twists on the Classic Fairy Tale
Disney‘s streak of live-action remakes continues, and one we’re looking forward to is 2024’s “Snow White,” a revival of 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The OG “Snow White” was Disney’s first animated feature film, and adjusted for inflation, it’s the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The new version stars Rachel Zegler as the titular heroine with Gal Gadot joining her as the Evil Queen so intent on being the fairest of them all.
The movie is directed by Marc Webb and wrapped filming in the summer of 2022. Besides that, not a whole lot is known about the film, though the team behind it have teased that there will be some pretty big differences between the original and the new one. First, there’s the casting of Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, as Snow White. She talked about her casting in Variety’s 2022 “Actors on Actors” series, saying in part, “Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent. Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries.”
Zegler referenced the 2012 Spanish film “BlancaNieves,” based on “Snow White,” and called the character a “huge icon.” She continued, “But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that. At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”
In a December 2021 interview with Buzzfeed, she teased about the movie’s take on the story, “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.”
The film has also been criticized for how it plans to approach a story that involves “seven dwarves.” In January 2022, actor Peter Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism, called it a “backward story” in a lengthy interview on the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast. Disney responded to the comments at the time, saying 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. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.” Disney has yet to explain the movie’s take on the characters.
Ahead, here’s everything we know about the live-action “Snow White” so far.
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