Disney’s 'Snow White' Cancellation Has Been 8 Years in the Making, Expert Weighs In

Next up to join The Walt Disney Company’s live-action remake canon is a new take on the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But the Snow White (2024) movie has already been canceled ahead of its debut.

While movies like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010) and the Angelina Jolie vehicle, Maleficent (2014) are classed as live-action remakes (Alice based on the 1951 animation of the same name, and Maleficent as an alternate version of the Sleeping Beauty (1959) tale), it wasn’t until Cinderella in 2015 that the live-action remake train really became its own franchise.

Following Cinderella, Disney’s output of these adaptations became near-constant. The Jungle Book was released in 2016, and then the billion-dollar hit Beauty and the Beast came a year later in 2017. Then in 2019, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, and the company’s first streaming remake, Lady and the Tramp, made their debut. In 2020, there was Mulan, and in 2022, Tom Hanks starred in Pinocchio.

Earlier this year, Disney remakes returned to the big screen with a splash when Rob Marshall’s The Little Mermaid opened in May. Halle Bailey starred as the titular character, Ariel, alongside the likes of Melissa McCarthy as sea witch Ursula, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Awkwafina as Scuttle. The musical movie did $560 million at the worldwide box office. At present, The Lion King is still the best-performing Disney remake and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a global gross of $1.6 billion.

Unsettling discourse surfaced when it was announced that Halle Bailey would be taking on the character of Ariel. Since 1989, the white-skinned red-haired mermaid is the Ariel many have grown up with, so Disney’s decision to cast a Black actress in the role ignited a nasty and unsettling racist response. And it seems years later, many are singing that same tune. Upon revealing that actress Rachel Zegler had been cast as Snow White in the upcoming live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, comments about her appearance versus the 1937 version came to the fore.

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Over the last few months, the anticipation for Snow White has waned significantly, with many canceling the project and deeming it a flop months before release. First, there was an alleged photo of the “seven dwarfs” characters that caused a backlash, and then Zegler herself incensed potential audiences with her comments about both the legacy of Snow White and her views on the SAG-AFTRA strikes.

During the strike action, a video of Zegler went viral where she stated that if she was going to be in an iconic princess dress for 18 hours a day, then she deserves to be paid for every hour it is streamed online.

Then, through resurfaced interviews, Zegler has said that she has only seen the original film once, and it “scared” her, before also commenting that the prince of the piece is essentially a stalker. The star of the upcoming The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) also suggested that this Snow White is not going to be searching for true love and won’t be saved by a prince, even going so far as to joke that all of the Andrew Burnap’s scenes as Jonathan could be cut. Social media has caught onto the buzz around Zegler, with many calling her out for signing onto the project in the first place if she has so many issues with the source material.

And according to Brittany Eldrige, the issues people are having with Snow White were potentially caused by Cinderella‘s release eight years ago. Cinderella was Disney’s first princess to headline their own live-action film, and this seems to have set a precedent that fans are having a hard time letting go of, especially when it comes to a reimagining of an original animated film.

“People are looking for that exact character in the live-action [remake]. That’s what [Disney] did with Cinderella. And so that’s what they’re looking for again because Cinderella was almost a copy-and-paste job,” the commentary editor for the International Journal of Disney Studies told BBC. “I think it does have a lot to do with the nostalgia and wanting to relive the same experience that you originally lived when you went through it. [But] the whole point of fairy tales is to adapt and evolve, and that’s what we’re seeing here with Disney.”

Circling back to Burnap’s character that Zegler mentioned when being asked about the prince, it’s clear that Jonathan is not there to represent a prince at all. This could also add fuel to the fire when Disney eventually reveals more about the project, such as the trailer, and just what role the male lead will play in the movie.

Related: ‘Barbie’ Movie Is the New Gold Standard, Per Experts

What much of the backlash surrounding the Snow White remake seems to be forgetting, though, is the involvement of Greta Gerwig. The actress, writer, and director’s latest movie Barbie (2023), starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, is the most celebrated movie of the summer, and judging by Zegler’s comments on the adaptation of Snow White, is a taste of what Disney may be doing with their next live-action adventure. Barbie is, after all, rooted in challenging the patriarchy, which doesn’t seem too far off what Zegler has stated this Snow White Disney remake may be doing.

Snow White is slated to open on March 22, 2024. The live-action remake stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and Andrew Burnap as Jonathan. It is directed by Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) and is co-written by Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train).

What do you think of the Snow White Disney remake discourse? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!