‘Snow White’ Actor Rips Disney For Scaled-Back Premiere Of Controversial Film: “They’re Afraid Of The Blowback”

There’s a part of me that thinks Disney wishes they could just scrap their Snow White live action remake altogether.

From the very beginning, the movie has been embroiled in self-inflicted controversy. It’s never a good sign when a movie’s release is pushed back an entire year. The updated Snow White movie was originally supposed to hit theaters in March of 2024, and it’s now set to debut next week (so March 2025). Disney said the delay was due to the SAG-AFTRA Strike in 2023… but many assume it’s actually because of the backlash and controversy that’s surrounded the film from the get-go.

One of the first things that caused an uproar online was the casting of Rachel Zegler for the role of Snow White, who is of Polish and Colombian decent. The racial backlash that came from that was ugly, with many saying that the modernized movie had strayed too far away from the original source that described the Disney princess as having “skin as white as snow.”

Zegler didn’t help herself when, while she was promoting her new Snow White film, the actress bashed the 1937 version. She stated that the original “scared” her, and implied that the trope of a prince saving a princess was outdated. Zegler even suggested that the prince was a stalker, and that the new version of the movie decided to skip the “weird” kiss that breaks the curse Snow White is under in the original.

The Snow White in this new film is expected to be more of a leader and independent…

Then, you’ve just got the people who think these live action remakes are simply cash grabs by Disney. Though these movies might be “new,” they’re really just retelling stories that already exist and changing them up a bit so it’s not a carbon copy of the original. There’s a nostalgia factor to it… but a lot of people are asking, “Why would I watch this remake when there’s nothing wrong the original?”

The classic “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” argument.

At one point, there was some belief that Disney would punt on the Snow White project altogether. After all, the original teaser trailer that they put out was one of the most disliked and downvoted trailers of all time (not exaggerating there). However, Walt Disney Studios opted to keep the train moving… though at one point they interestingly ditched the dwarfs.

That’s been quite possibly the slipperiest of the slopes that the live action remake has faced: what to do with the dwarf characters. Obviously, the original story is titled Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. You know… Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy. They’re critical to the story, but Disney wasn’t sure how to handle the casting.

So they dropped the seven dwarves from the title altogether, and fearing that they would offend audiences, they chose to go full CGI with the dwarves, and refer to them in the film as “magical creatures.” Believe it or not, going the CGI route with the dwarves caused an uproar in the dwarfism community. Even Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage came out and said it was confusing to not give the roles of the seven dwarves to… real people with dwarfism.

That being said, there is one person with dwarfism that’s featured in the film. Martin Klebba, a 55-year-old actor who has starred in Disney movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, is the only little person to voice one of the seven “dwarfs” in the upcoming film. He told The Hollywood Reporter that even though it was made apparent that the dwarfs would be CGI in the film, he thought it was important for him to still represent the dwarfism community by providing the voice for Grumpy:

“I don’t usually get into the political stuff, but I (felt), ‘Dwarfs aren’t going to go away just because you can’t imagine that they’re there.’ We’re still going to be walking around. So I didn’t get the whole stuff about not doing the dwarfs. The story’s been around forever, and it’s a classic.”

Klebba is excited to be a part of the film, but he’s still confused as to why Disney shied away from even mentioning the word “dwarf.” After all, the original film is still very much named and referred to as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The actor said he personally feels like going away from it all was a mistake:

“I wish they would’ve kept it. I wouldn’t have gone away from that. But the marketing people know what they’re doing.”

Do they though?

Because of all of the backlash that’s hit Disney’s latest live action remake, the studio has opted to really scale down the world premiere of the movie. And by “scale down,” I mean they are basically doing away with the traditional premiere.

Klebba assumes it’s because Disney is scared of the blowback – and has always has been with this film. The actor acting as the sole representation of the little person community in the film voiced his disapproval of attempting to “hide” the movie by shrinking the premiere:

“It really isn’t going to be a red carpet. It’s going to be at the El Capitan (Theatre), which is cool. But it’s basically going to be a pre-party, watch the movie, and that’s it. There’s not going to be this whole hoopla of, ‘Disney’s first f**king movie they ever made.’ Because of all this controversy, they’re afraid of the blowback from different people in society.”

All in all, it seems like the nightmare scenario continues for Disney with their Snow White remake. Even the trailer got bashed not too long ago…

Make way for the magical movie event

Disney’s #SnowWhite arrives only in theaters March 21. pic.twitter.com/E5XYOAsBSy

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) February 14, 2025