Walt Disney Studios is scaling back the premieres of its live action remake of “Snow White” after the film was bewitched by several controversies spanning from its “woke” approach to the seven dwarves to inflammatory comments by its star, Rachel Zegler, who in addition to expressing anti-Israel sentiment – despite sharing top billing with a proudly Israeli actress – also made remarks denigrating the cherished fairy tale’s most poignant moments. 

The film, which was once viewed as the studio’s most highly anticipated release of the year and is believed to have cost the studio an estimated $270 million, will now debut through a series of tightly controlled red carpet events that will shield the actors from on-the-spot questions from the press, Variety reported this week. 

Most notably, the largest premier event has been demoted from the usual blowout ceremony in London to a quieter event set in a medieval castle in a small city north-west of Madrid, Spain– the same castle that inspired the design of the witch’s castle in the original, 1937 film. Given the fact that the premier is not listed on calendars used by the entertainment media to plan coverage, it most likely won’t be open to the press, according to the Daily Mail.

The 1937 “Snow White,” which revolutionized feature animation, was so important to the foundation of The Walt Disney Company that its Burbank, California headquarters building is supported by giant caryatids of the Seven Dwarves. For the last 20 years, Disney has been steadily remaking its classic animated films as live action features that hew carefully to their animated forebears. 

The “Snow White” project is of particular interest to Disney considering the original film’s significance. But the original movie, and the medieval fairy tale upon which it was based – replete with traditional gender roles and dwarves – have become a cultural minefield for Disney in 2020s America.  

Indeed, the film has faced backlash for at least the last two years over a myriad of controversies, many of which surround Ms. Zegler, a half Colombian, half Polish, New Jersey-born actress who was cast as the film’s protagonist, “Snow White.”

Ms. Zegler’s troubles first began as early as 2023 when, during a series of interviews, she criticized the Disney classic film for furthering sexist tropes. In one conversation, Ms. Zegler described the dynamic between Snow White and Prince Charming as “weird” and denounced the original plotline for being focused on “a love story with a guy who literally stalks her.” In another interview she called the story’s plotline “extremely outdated.”

Although some viewed her comments as empowering and pro-feminist, others were irked by what they viewed as a slight of their beloved movie and an application of “woke” thinking on a medieval fairy tale. In light of the mounting criticism, Ms. Zegler later issued a video apology. 

(In recent years, scholars have re-imagined the prince kissing a sleeping Snow White as “sexual violence.” The actress Kristin Bell, who voiced a princess in the Disney animation blockbuster, “Frozen”, said that she expressed concern to her children that the prince’s kiss was nonconsensual, since Snow White, when she received the kiss, was in a coma and believed dead.)

Ms. Zegler found herself again in hot water in the summer of 2024 when she shared comments on social media that appeared to egg on the antisemitic backlash to the casting of co-star, Gal Gadot, who plays the Wicked Queen. Shortly after Disney dropped the film’s trailer online, the 23-year-old star took to X to thank her fans “for the love and for 120m views on our trailer in just 24 hours” before adding on the seemingly unrelated message: “always remember, free Palestine.” 

The post quickly went viral online, with many commenters calling out her post as an inherent denunciation of her Israeli co-star, Ms. Gadot. As a major Hollywood star who has been outspoken in her public support of Israel, Ms. Gadot has faced antisemitic attacks online since Disney announced her casting. 

The film’s trailer release also drummed up debate given that it revealed the studio’s inclusion of computer-generated dwarfs rather than casting living and breathing little people for the roles. The decision appeared to be an attempt to short circuit the pressure placed on Disney by the “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage, who criticized the producers for touting progressivism by casting Ms. Zegler, who identifies as Hispanic, as the film’s famously “snow white” heroine (Ms. Zegler, who won a Golden Globe award for her portrayal of the Puerto Rican heroine of “West Side Story,” has a darker complexion than the white-skinned animated character from the 1937 film), while keeping a plotline which offers an insulting representation of dwarfism.

“It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the fuck are you doing, man?” Mr. Dinklage said during a podcast interview back in 2022. The celebrated actor has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia and has used his celebrity status to raise awareness about issues related to dwarfism. 

His scorching comments went viral online and prompted Disney to release a cryptic statement: “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,” a spokesman said in 2021. “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”

The computer-generated dwarf approach, however, appeared to satisfy no one. “Replacing the seven dwarfs in ‘Snow White’ with CGI is not ‘progressive’,” wrote Billy Binion in Reason magazine. “Disney said they wanted to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes.’ The company’s solution was to take away roles from a group that has almost no opportunity in Hollywood.”

Speaking on Meghan McCain’s podcast on Wednesday, Mr. Binion remarked that Mr. Dinklage was wrong to describe the seven dwarves as living in a cave, since they actually lived in a “beautiful Bavarian chateaux” (Mr. Dinklage may have been referring to how the dwarves in the original movie worked in subterranean mines during the day).

Writing in Forbes, Erik Kain described the CGI dwarfs as “one huge little problem … Of course the dark irony here is that there are many little people actors who would love to get roles in movies like ‘Snow White’.”

Indeed, Mr. Dinklage, who became famous portraying a dwarf reviled by his detractors as “the imp” and derided by his father as “an ill-made, spiteful, little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning,” was effectively slamming the door behind him on other little people who in search of meaningful theatrical work.

Fast forward to November, when the irrepressible Ms. Zegler drew fresh criticism for unleashing a hateful post-election tirade against Trump supporters and voters, who she said she hoped “will never know peace.” Although she quickly apologized for letting her emotions “get the best of me,” the public relations uproar further undermined the upcoming Disney film.

According to anonymous sources that spoke with the Daily Mail, Ms. Zegler’s remarks infuriated studio executives who had already labeled her a “loose cannon” and “a nightmare.” They, according to the insider, lamented that it was “too late” to remove her from the film. 

By that point, the movie had already been pushed back to 2025 in part, according to Hollywood observers, to give Disney’s marketing team more time to repair the reputational damage caused by Ms. Zegler’s comments. 

Despite the seeming bad blood, Ms. Zegler and Ms. Gadot appeared to put their differences behind them during a joint appearance at the 97th Academy Awards. The duo traipsed on stage to the sound of an instrumental rendition of the “Snow White” song “Some Day my Prince Will Come” and presented the nominees for the “Best Visual Effects” category. Although the duo appeared cordial, they hardly glanced at each other during the ordeal.