What is the Snow White dwarfs controversy? David Spade and Theo Von discuss the casting of "little people" in the Disney musical

David Spade and Theo Von discussed the controversies emerging from the remake of Snow White on the latest episode of the latter’s podcast, This Past Weekend, which aired on May 6, 2025. Notably, Spade and Von also focused on the controversy that occurred due to the dwarf characters, which started in July 2023 after The Daily Mail revealed the alleged photos of the same.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the dwarf characters were displayed as magical creatures in the viral pictures, which received heavy criticism. Apart from this, the criticism continued when Disney disclosed in February 2025 that the characters were created through CGI instead of using real actors.

Theo Von referred to the controversy on the podcast as he spoke to David Spade and said:

“Dude, well, what happened? They didn’t put. What happened with that whole thing? They didn’t put little people in it right first? Is that what happened?”

David Spade immediately realized that Theo Von was addressing Snow White and responded by saying that there were no issues in the casting of Gal Gadot. Spade described the Fast Five star as “gorgeous and a good wicked queen.”

Spade mentioned that Snow White was involved in certain problems because of the dwarfs, and seemingly referred to the casting process of the same as he stated:

“There’s seven jobs out of the ten a year. So, let’s give them these seven and then, I don’t think, I would leave it up to them. ‘Do you guys wanna work?” You know? I sound like it’s so horrible you guys. I mean, listen, there’s a lot that work. People say Peter Dinklage but they can’t name ten more that are, that work a lot. So hell, leave it up to them.”

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Snow White dwarfs controversy: Response by Disney and other details explained

As mentioned, the live-action remake created headlines due to certain controversies it was involved with ever since the film entered production. The problems started with the alleged photos of the dwarfs revealed by the Daily Mail. A spokesperson for Disney responded to the viral pictures while speaking to The Daily Beast in July 2023, saying they were fake. The spokesperson added:

“We are currently trying to have the Daily Mail issue a correction.”

The photo with the dwarfs featured an actress, and the dwarfs included both male and female actors. However, the same spokesperson later told The Independent that the snaps were not official and that Rachel Zegler, who plays Snow White, was not included in them.

According to Vulture magazine, Disney revealed the first look of Zegler as Snow White in October of the same year, which included the CGI dwarfs, confirming that the characters were not played by real actors.

Notably, Peter Dinklage had criticized the live-action remake of Snow White in January 2022 while speaking on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, saying that it did not make any sense. The actor said that he was initially surprised by the lead character’s casting and added:

“You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that fu**ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the fu** are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough. I don’t know which studio that is, but they were so proud of it.”

As per Entertainment Weekly, Disney confirmed, in February this year, the motion-capture used with actors for the dwarfs, and the characters were voiced by the same actors. However, the news received criticism from dwarf actors like Ali Chapman, who told TMZ that it was wrong on Disney’s side for not casting talented actors for the characters.

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The musical fantasy, released in March this year, has emerged as a box office bomb as it failed to recover the budget. It featured Gal Gadot playing the Evil Queen and was directed by Marc Webb.