‘Snow White’ Cast Members Wanted Their Moment to Shine—Disney Took It Away From Them

Disney’s live-action Snow White (2025)—now cue the controversies. The film hasn’t even hit theaters yet, and its stars are embroiled in years of controversies and backlash.

It started with the film’s star, Rachel Zegler, who plays Snow White.

When it was announced that Zegler, who is half Colombian, would take on the role of Snow White, there was an immediate backlash. Some labeled Disney “woke” for changing the main character to be more inclusive. The “woke” label stayed with Disney after it was revealed that Disney had replaced the seven dwarfs with seven “magical creatures.”

After getting the role, Zegler did not help to tamp down the “woke” controversies. She criticized the original film, calling it “weird” and Prince Charming a “stalker.”

More recently, she said that she hopes Donald Trump and his supporters “never know peace,” which they took as a threat. Zegler has since apologized for those remarks.

Zegler and co-star Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, are also feuding. Gadot is Israeli, and Zegler has been outspoken in her support for the Palestinian people.

To keep the two stars out of the spotlight, Disney tamped down the London premiere of Snow White earlier this month and is now doing the same with the Los Angeles premiere as well.

However, that does not sit well with some of the other cast and crew members who worked for years on this project and have nothing to do with the controversies surrounding the film.

Martin Klebba, who voices the character Grumpy, told the New York Post:

I was a little disappointed. I’m not disappointed in Disney. I’m disappointed in the world.

We’ve come to this place in society where people work really hard on this movie, where Marc Webb, the director, is probably four years into putting this together, along with the producers and Disney, and just because a couple of people have views that not everybody feels the same way, now we’re having to alter the fun part of making a movie, which is premieres.

Klebba has worked with Disney on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and The Haunted Mansion (2003). He said that he doesn’t blame Disney for its decision but that “it’s sad that society has gotten to the point where we have to do this nowadays.”

For the rest of the cast and crew who worked tirelessly to bring this film to the screen, the premiere is now a bittersweet moment. The world will finally see all their work, but they won’t get the opportunity to celebrate with the people who they worked so hard for all these years.

However, at this point, Disney has decided that it would rather anger the cast and crew than have another problem sink in its latest film.

What do you think of Disney canceling the large Hollywood premiere for ‘Snow White?’