Disney's colorblind casting in remaking classic cartoons into live-action features is raising ire again. This time it's about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Rachel Zegler, the West Side Story actress who was cast in the title role, is facing what she calls a "nonsensical" backlash similar to what Halle Bailey faced in the leadup to The Little Mermaid.
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Conservative sites like The Daily Mail are trumpeting stories about the risks Disney is taking by releasing a movie with a non-white Snow White. This despite having a screenplay co-written by Greta Gerwig, who adapted for the screen this year's biggest movie hit.
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.
— rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) July 15, 2023
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 pic.twitter.com/AU5PjJutK5
They're accusing Disney of continual "woke" casting and are citing the box office underperformance of Little Mermaid this year as evidence that the strategy is costing Disney money. (Even though it's likely Little Mermaid will end up profitable once streaming factors in.)
“You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent," Zegler said last year, "even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries... When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry... We need to love them in the right direction. 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.”
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Well, Disney isn't going to recast, so those critics are just going to have to make their kids cry once again by refusing to take them to see another new movie. But they may get some relief: Rumor has it that Florence Pugh may be cast as the next Disney princess in a Tangled adaptation. Maybe that will shut them up for a little while.