Disney dares to adapt one of its treasures, the fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, into a live-action movie in 2025. In 1937, Walt Disney discovered the story's potential and created the very first feature-length animated film with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". The news that Disney would be remaking the classic was announced in 2022. Early on, in the months leading up to the film, there were many positive and negative opinions about the project, which is already the topic of much heated debate. In this video, we take a look at the plot and cast of the film and whether Disney has addressed the fans' wishes and fears.

Cast

A lot can already be said about the cast, as most of the supporting actors are already known in addition to the main actors. The starring role in "Snow White" is played by Rachel Zegler, who was able to make a convincing impression in the Spielberg remake of "West Side Story" and also recently played the leading role of Lucy Gray Baird in the new "Hunger Games" film.

However, the young US American is not entirely undisputed. In the past, she has often made negative comments about the classic animated movies from the last century. In an interview released in 2022, Rachel Zegler also took a closer look at the relationship between Snow White and the prince. She said that the latter was simply a stalker in the original and that it was all very "weird". In many respects, one notices in the original that it is a film from 1937 and that it is no longer imaginable in this way today. The fact that she made negative remarks about the film, in whose remake she plays the leading role, is of course not going down well with fans!

Snow White will also be shown in a younger version in the remake. Emilia Faucher, who can already be seen in "Coda", is ready for this role. The Evil Queen will be played by "Wonder Woman" actress Gal Gadot. She was last seen on the big screen in "The Flash" in 2023.

This time, there won't be a real prince, but a kind of love interest called Jonathan. He will be played by Andrew Burnap. "Snow White" is Burnap's first major Hollywood movie. It is not yet known exactly what the role of Jonathan will look like. In keeping with Zegler's wishes, Disney would like to do without a proper prince and have Snow White take center stage as the leader in the battle against the Evil Queen.

However, there will be a Huntsman, who will act as the Evil Queen's henchman. He will be played by Ansu Kabia. The Brit most recently starred in the biographical drama "Back to Black", which is about the life of singer Amy Winehouse's life. Other minor roles are played by Dujonna Gift-Simms, Joshmaine Joseph, Lukus Alexander, Misa Koide, Katie Hardwick, Dean Nolan, Charlotte Scally, Kathryn Akin and Leon Ung.

Plot

"Snow White" will be a typical remake, so you can largely expect the familiar story: Princess Snow White ends up in the forest because of her envious stepmother, finds shelter with the seven dwarfs and is still faced with the queen's attempts to murder her. Most people will have come to know and appreciate the story, but the remake is said to have made a few changes to the details. It seems that Disney is taking a completely new approach to the story of the well-known fairy tale with the remake.

During Disney's D23 event, a contemporary adaptation of the story was already mentioned. This is said to be aimed at a progressive, younger audience. The current title of the movie already gives an idea here: the movie is now simply called "Snow White", without mentioning the seven dwarfs like the original. "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage in particular is believed to have contributed to this to some extent. In 2022, he expressed his displeasure regarding the story of the seven dwarfs, calling it "backward". Dinklage, having a common form of dwarfism himself, clearly felt discriminated against by the remake plans and noted that Disney seemed to have no problem casting a Latina as Snow White, but that the seven dwarfs would continue to be portrayed like cavemen. He was quickly reassured by Disney that they wanted to avoid the stereotypes of the original as best as possible.

In mid-2023, first impressions from the film set were made public, showing a double of the title character and her seven companions - a group of men and women with different skin tones and body sizes. As a result, Disney faced a huge shitstorm on the internet, claiming that they were completely distorting the story and that yet another tale would fall victim to Disney's "woke" trend. After that, things went quiet around the project for a while, as the writers' and actors' strike in Hollywood began. At the end of 2023, Disney released its first official photo of the film, which showed some changes to the dwarfs. The various companions were turned into fully CGI created dwarfs. This was Disney's attempt to respond to fan criticism on the one hand, but also to show consideration for people who feel discriminated against by actors playing dwarfs on the other.

However, things are a little different when it comes to the protagonist's origins. Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony - this is how the Brothers Grimm describe Snow White in their fairy tale and this is also how she was portrayed in the animated movie. However, leading actress Rachel Zegler does not quite match this image, as the US American has Colombian roots. Actually, the fairy tale is very popular in Latin American countries, which is why Disney may have found the decision to cast this rather unusual character somewhat easier. Naturally, there was a huge amount of outrage online, to which Zegler had a laconic answer: people would first have to be won over by the new Latina princess. We are curious to see what other changes will be made in the remake and how much of the old story will still be left in the end.

Production

It had been clear for some time that a remake of "Snow White" would be produced at some point. Back in 2016, Variety published an initial report on a new Disney film, for which "The Amazing Spider-Man" director Marc Webb was eventually hired. He will be assisted by Greta Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson as screenwriters. The go-ahead for the filming began in March 2022 and was completed four months later in July of the same year. There were then a few additional shoots in 2024. Though the actual premiere was planned for March 2024, it was pushed back like many other Disney productions due to the actors' and writers' strikes.

Here, too, Zegler knew how to be controversial. After joining the strikes, she stated:

"If I'm going to spend 18 hours dressed as an iconic Disney princess, then I deserve to be paid for every hour it's streamed online!"

This did not go down well with all fans, as it was considered greedy and hypocritical of the actress to be complaining given that she was more than well-paid for the film. At least according to some fans on the Internet. She was paid half a million dollars for "West Side Story" and 750 thousand dollars for the latest movie in "The Hunger Games" series. She's certainly not poor, but if you look at Gal Gadot's 10 million dollar wage for "Wonder Woman 2" for comparison, she's obviously not one of Hollywood's richest stars.

The new premiere date is scheduled for March 21, 2025. We haven't seen a first trailer yet, but we're expecting one at this year's Disney D23 at the latest.