Disney’s recent, cryptic announcement that it is delaying the release of its live-action remake of the classic 1937 animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by a full year until March 2025 has unleashed a torrent of speculation by worried Disney fans that the delay is due to significant public relations missteps that could have spelled disaster at the box office.

Fans are also concerned about a publicity photo released with the news of the film’s delay which showed star Rachel Zegler surrounded by seven obviously “drawn” or computer-generated dwarfs rather than live-action actors. 

“If I were Disney, I would cast real dwarf actors rather than make them all CGI,” another user wrote. “I believe they are as talented as any actors in Hollywood. Diversity and representation ain’t just about skin colors.”

Disney’s announcement and the new publicity photo last month came after a firestorm of controversy erupted over whether Disney planned to feature dwarfs in the film or replace them with full-sized men due to concerns about perpetuating stereotypes. The controversy began in January of 2022 when “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage criticized Disney for making a movie that he feared would reinforce harmful stereotypes of people with dwarfism.

“I was a little taken aback by [the fact] they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” he told podcaster Marc Maron. “You’re progressive in one way but you’re still making that f*cking backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave. What the f*ck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

(In the 1937 film, the dwarfs do work in a mine, but they live in a cottage.)

Mr. Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia and is fierce advocate for people with dwarfism and opponent of practices harmful to those with dwarfism such as the bar game of “dwarf tossing,” said of the Snow White remake that he would have been “all in” on the story if Disney put a “cool, progressive spin” on it. 

In response to Mr. Dinklage, Disney made a statement that alarmed Snow White purists: “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”

Fast forward to July 2023, and photos purported to be from the film’s set in England appeared online showing actors of typical height – with the exception of one – seemingly portraying the dwarfs. One horrified X user wrote: 

“The cast of the new Snow White movie. These are the dwarfs. Well. No. This is 1 dwarf, 4 regular size men, 1 regular size girl and a tall woman. This is ridiculous. They said it was for ‘inclusiveness.’ I won’t be seeing this movie either. They ruin everything.”

Disney’s October announcement – with the publicity photo showing cartoon dwarfs – appears intended to assuage fears of a dwarf-free film. But the slightly oversized dwarfs’ cartoonish portrayal in the publicity photo, which appeared to be computer-generated, raised new alarms. 

“I thought they made the dwarfs not dwarfs did they backtrack cause I feel like this is worse then Snow White and the seven none dwarfs,” one X user wrote.

In its press release, Disney described the image as “a magical look,” suggesting that the image is not really how the dwarves will look in the completed film. Fans, however, were not assuaged. It didn’t help that Disney referred to the “recognizable characters” such as “Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, Happy, Sleepy and Doc,” without using the word “dwarfs.”

“Enough with the hyperrealism, Disney!” one X user wrote.

“Those 7 dwarfs look like pure nightmare fuel in Snow White,” another user said.

More practical observers of Hollywood claim the delay of the film’s release day is, instead of being due to the dwarfs controversy, is actually due to the ongoing labor dispute between the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which has ground most Hollywood productions to a halt. But fans aren’t believing the strike would create a delay as long as a full year. In addition to the “real dwarfs” controversy, they also point to derogatory comments made by Ms. Zegler about the original “Snow White” film and the centuries-old Teutonic fairy tale on which it was based.

Ms. Zegler, 22, burst onto the scene in 2021 with her role as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “West Side Story,” for which she won a Golden Globe. But when Disney cast her as Snow White, Ms. Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, was subjected to a torrent of racist comments alleging she was not “white” enough to play the classic character.

“Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me,” Zegler told Andrew Garfield as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series. “You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent. Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries.

“Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it. But you don’t particularly see people who look like me, or are me, playing roles like that. When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people [who] were angry.”

Ms. Zegler went on to say she was still “really excited” to “get to be a Latina princess,” but the controversies certainly didn’t end there. 

In an “Entertainment Weekly” interview she and and the remake’s evil queen, Gal Gadot, 38, gave in September 2022, Ms. Zegler made a series of inflammatory comments about the beloved, original Disney film. 

During the interview, Ms. Zegler talked about being “scared of the original version” as a child and how she hadn’t revisited the film until she landed the role. She also mentioned the original film’s “extremely dated” nature regarding women in roles of power.

In another interview for “Variety”, Ms. Zegler claimed the new take on the classic tale will not see Snow White being “saved by the prince” or “dreaming about true love.”

“She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be,” Zegler said.

These comments deriding the original film and fairy tale resulted in some less-than-positive commentary from the public, with one X user writing: “Rachel Zegler is single-handedly destroying this movie… It’s impressive how many people she’s turned against seeing Snow White.”

For her part, Ms. Zegler responded to the negative feedback by calling it “nonsensical” and posting to social media an image of her as a young child dressed as Ssnow Wwhite.

The Daily Mail reports that Disney insiders told its reporter that the film’s released date was delayed by a year in order to allow the bad publicity to subside and to give the studio’s marketers more time to reverse the tide of public opinion causedsourced by the film’s “many scandals.”
Whether the criticism is warranted or not, it should be noted there are still people eagerly awaiting the remake’s release. Only time will tell if efforts to delay the movie will quell ongoing backlash.