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Credit: Inside the MagicIn just over two weeks, The Walt Disney Company will finally unveil its live-action remake of 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney’s Snow White comes from director Marc Webb and its journey to the big screen has been anything but smooth. Now, the studio has confirmed one main character replacement for the upcoming theatrical event.
Stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, who play Snow White and the Evil Queen respectively, will soon share the same screen when Disney’s Snow White drops exclusively in movie theaters on March 21, 2025–but if their chemistry is anything like their presentation at the 97th Academy Awards, fans will be in for a frosty time.
The production of Snow White has been littered with controversies ever since its announcement. From comments about its “backward” story involving dwarfs to the casting of former IDF soldier Gal Gadot to Rachel Zegler’s comments on Walt Disney’s original feature film, Snow White has much to do to get audiences back on side.
Zegler and Gadot’s appearance at the Oscars and the recent featurettes on social media may be a little too late to push Disney’s upcoming live-action remake into the green, considering its reported nearly $300 million budget (via Forbes). According to projections, Snow White could deliver a $53 million domestic debut, which wouldn’t be terrible if it wasn’t a Disney tentpole.
One of the main contentions over the movie, which is penned by Barbie director Greta Gerwig and Erin Cressida Wilson (The Girl on the Train), is its apparent departure from the original 1937 movie.
Zegler’s 2022 comments about how this version of Snow White won’t be seeking love or hoping a prince–who she said stalks the princess–will come and save her drew ire, with many taking her criticism as disrespectful to the source material.
While touching on her comments and the backlash it caused a handful of times, Zegler recently stated she thought the criticism against the live-action endeavor came from audiences’ passion for the original movie. Only time will tell how much damage the publicized production of the movie will do when the film finally hits theaters a year after it was originally planned to debut.
With Zegler, Gadot, and the “dwarf” characters being akin to their animated counterparts, one character that will seemingly be more of a contrast to the 1937 version will be Webb’s take on the prince character.
It was known for some time that the prince would not be featured in the live-action remake as he was depicted almost 90 years ago, instead, Disney opted for a new character called Jonathan, played by Andrew Burnap.
Aside from glimpses of the character in the trailer, not much was known of the backstory for Jonathan, but now, just two weeks out from release, Disney has confirmed the role of Jonathan in the movie. Per the Spring 2025 D23 magazine, via The Direct, the origin for this character has finally been revealed.
“When writing the script, we went back to the (Walt Disney) Archives to understand how Walt brought Snow White to life,” Webb said. “It was humbling to see the amount of work and care that went into the making of that magnificent piece of art.
One sketch that didn’t make it into the original film— about the Prince being held in the dungeon —really stuck with me. It was a storyline that Walt never got to complete to his satisfaction. So, in a sense, Jonathan was our effort to pick up where he left off.”
Zegler may have strongly suggested this movie is not about love, but Webb’s comments convey the opposite. The director said: “We’ve been careful to preserve the iconography of Snow White that we love while also exploring Snow White’s romance and romantic relationship a bit more deeply.”
And as for Andrew Burnap himself, the WeCrashed and Under the Banner of Heaven actor, explained how Jonathan–the non-royal in this piece–is part of the story.
“Jonathan finds himself quite disillusioned with the power structures of the world he lives in and is part of a certain resistance to those power structures. When we meet him, he is just looking for a reason to find a sense of fight in himself again, that sense of hope that seems to be missing from the world,” Burnap said.
“There are certain times in life where your sense of hope and resistance is knocked down a few pegs and you’re just looking for something that will reignite the fire within you. And that’s certainly the place where Jonathan finds himself.”
He went on to say that Jonathan finds humor in the serious, with Rachel Zegler likening him to Flynn Rider from 2010’s Tangled movie.
Disney’s Snow White will open this spring on March 21, 2025. It stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, Andrew Burnap as Jonathan, Ansu Kabia as the Huntsman, Jeremy Swift as Doc, Andrew Barth Feldman as Dopey, Tituss Burgess as Bashful, George Salazar as Happy, Martin Klebba as Grumpy, Andy Grotelueschen as Sleepy, and Jason Kravits as Sneezy.
How do you feel about this prince character replacement in Disney’s Snow White? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!