You would think that the premier of Snow White — yet another live-action remake of a classic animation that nobody asked for — would be a typically well-covered red-carpet extravaganza. In a politically tense world, however, Disney has decided it will happen without the usual media presence.
That’s because, for reasons it didn’t explain, the House of Mouse announced this week that media coverage for the event will be limited to photographers and its own in-house crew.
Disney’s live-action remakes have increasingly been the target of outrage from right-wing commentators, bemoaning the “woke-ification” of Disney’s new versions of the classics their parents raised them on, and the Snow White remake — directed by Marc Webb and starring Latina actress Rachel Zegler as the titular princess and Israeli star Gal Gadot as the evil queen — has managed to upset more people than any of its predecessors.
First, as they complained about the casting of black actress Halle Bailey as Ariel in 2023’s The Little Mermaid, the ultraconservative Disney fan base has taken issue with the casting of Zegler as Snow White. Zegler only added fire to the flames when at a 2023 interview she wrote off Walt Disney’s 1937 original as dated because the “prince literally stalks Snow White” in that version. This time, Zegler assured fans, the princess would not “be saved by the prince. She’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.”
That sparked predictable “anti-snowflake” rage from online trolls who decided they would not be watching the new film.
Then there was the question of Snow White’s seven small cave-dwelling friends who are set to make their live-action appearance in the new film and merrily sing, “Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go.” Hollywood’s most famous little person, actor Peter Dinklage, went on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast early last year to point out that while Disney has been “very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White ... 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.”
Disney tried to placate Dinklage and his community by assuring them that “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”.
So has Disney removed press from the Snow White premier in an effort to prevent outraged conservatives and little people disrupting its party? Maybe, but there are some other bigger, more geopolitically inspired potential spanners in the works as well.
Like most of her fellow Israelis, Gadot is a former Israeli Defense Forces conscript who served her time in 2005 as a combat trainer teaching her fellow soldiers gymnastics and calisthenics. She’s also become, since the terrible events of October 7 2023, an outspoken supporter of her homeland. At this year’s summit of the Anti-Defamation League, the actress took to the podium to deliver a speech in which she said, “Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews.” That’s the kind of statement that is catnip to free-Palestine supporters in Hollywood and the US, one of whom is Zegler, who has been vocal in her opposition to Israel on her social media.
With recent protests by pro-Palestine supporters at the premier for Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World over its inclusion of the Israeli superhero Sabra, played by Israeli actress Shira Haas, Disney is obviously worried about similar protests spoiling its Snow White magic moment. Though the film’s lead actors are on different sides of the conflict politically, they’ve made several public appearances together to promote their film without letting their politics get in the way, including a recent hosting gig at this year’s Oscars ceremony.
The list of potentially outraged groups looking to make their voices heard at the Snow White premier now includes racial purists, men, little people, pro-Israel supporters and free-Palestine advocates. That’s a list long enough to warrant the company’s press shutdown, but it’s not all folks, because Zegler has also angered Donald Trump’s supporters.
Just after last year’s election results were announced, Zegler made her feelings very clear when she posted, “F*** Donald Trump” on her Instagram story. She was taken to the woodshed by right-wing pundit Megyn Kelly, who called the 23-year-old actress a pig for her post, and a subsequent statement that Zegler posted in which she said, “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.”
Zegler was forced to eat humble pie and apologise, but she’s probably dead to the Maga crowd, who are definitely not going to watch the film.
And so with potential hordes of angry people from all sides of the US political spectrum having sharpened their knives and readied their placards for the preview, Disney has decided to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach.
The company will just have to hope that word of mouth from the preview will be favourable enough to get audiences to cinemas when the film releases on March 21, and that nobody reminds the over-eager tweeter in the White House that there’s a new not-so-snow white that he should take a look at.
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