Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, there will be nowhere to go for at least one major premiere of Snow White because Disney has reportedly decided against rolling out the red carpet for its controversial adaptation. Fears of “anti-woke backlash” have apparently prompted the studio to reduce its media schedule for the live-action remake, which stars Rachel Zegler as its leading princess. The stripped-back strategy is said to include canceling the usual star-studded shindig that allows movies to have their moment in the spotlight. Industry insiders told The Daily Mail that there won’t be a cinematic celebration for Snow White in the UK ahead of its theatrical release on Mar. 21, 2025, as Disney has opted to keep it low-key by only scheduling a few press events for the upcoming movie. According to the source, “Disney are already anticipating an anti-woke backlash against Snow White and have reduced the media schedule to just a handful of tightly controlled press events. That is why they have taken the highly unusual step not to host a London premiere for the film and are minimizing the amount of press questions that Rachel Zegler gets.”
Snow White has already faced its share of controversies, which started right back when Zegler was announced for the titular role and critics took issue with the casting of a Latina actress. Zegler also garnered backlash for comments she made about the original animated movie, describing the story as “dated” and the character of the Prince as “a stalker.” The changes between the source material and the remake upset a lot of people, including David Hand, the son of one of the original film’s directors, who publicly denounced the project, noting that it’s “making up new woke things.”
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, How Will ‘Snow White’ Perform?
The Marc Webb-directed feature certainly seems to be facing an uphill battle to turn a large portion of public opinion around and if the response to the first trailer is anything to go by, it’s got a long way to go. The teaser racked up over 1 million dislikes against 82,000 likes on YouTube in the first three weeks it was online in the aftermath of D23. However, Disney’s remake of The Little Mermaid also had over 1 million dislikes, but that didn’t stop it from landing a $117.5 million Memorial Day opening at the box office.
Disney has found some success remaking and creating live-action adaptations of its fan-favorite classics. The highest-grossing remakes include Aladdin ($1.054B), Beauty and the Beast ($1.266B), and The Lion King, which earned a record-shattering $1.663 billion to claw back its whopping budget. It remains to be seen whether Snow White will be able to “dig, dig, dig” its way out of the pit of controversy to a celebrated spot in the box office charts.
