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Purported photos from Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Snow White started circulating online, sparking a debate regarding the casting choice. Netizens criticized Disney for its casting of the titular character as well as the diverse cast who are playing the dwarfs.
The Daily Mail shared the alleged leaked images on Friday, July 13, and called the depiction of the Disney princess’ famed seven companions “politically correct.” They claimed the images were taken in the movie set in England’s Bedfordshire.
The photos show an actress dressed in the princess’ signature blue and yellow dress with a red cape. Along with the princess, seven diverse female and male actors dressed like Snow White’s companions were seen in the images.
Disney chose the original cast for the live-action remake in 2021, where “West Side Story” star Rachel Zeglar plays the titular character with Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. However, the actress in the photos shared by The Daily Mail did not resemble Zeglar at all.
The outlet noted that the princess’ companions appeared to be from different ethnicities, heights, and genders. Soon, the conservatives criticized these rumored photos from the set for their “wokeness.” One user, @ada_lluch, called to boycott Disney.
Netizens criticize Disney's casting for the upcoming Snow White movie
As soon as the leaked photos from the movie’s set went viral, people took to Twitter and expressed their frustration at Disney for deviating from original Disney stories. They strongly disapproved of Disney making film adaptations where they cast people from a completely different ethnicity, gender, or race from what was depicted in the original stories.
Many claim it takes away the essence of the stories and confuses children. Several people pointed out that Snow White was written by German authors, and the characters in the story are also of German descent. They criticized Disney for casting Rachel Zeglar, who is partly Colombian.
Disney responds to alleged images from the movie's set
The controversy surrounding the live-action remake further escalated when a spokesperson from Disney said on Friday that the viral photos were fake.
“The photos are fake and not from our production. We are currently trying to have the Daily Mail issue a correction.”
However, when the outlet was nudged to respond to Disney’s response, they claimed that the production studio confirmed the stand-ins being used for both Zeglar and Andrew Burnap in the leaked photos.
In a later statement to a different outlet, a Disney spokesperson clarified that the images shared by The Daily Mail were not official photos from the movie itself.
“These show stand-ins for some talent and do not feature Rachel Zegler or Andrew Burnap,” the spokesperson said.
In January 2022, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage discussed the casting of Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of the German fairy tale. He said he was taken aback when Disney proudly cast a “Latina” as the titular Snow White. He said that the casting made no sense to him.
