Disney’s Snow White gets muted Hollywood premiere

Disney's Snow White star Rachel Zegler at a premiere for the film in Los Angeles on March 15. PHOTO: REUTERS

UPDATED Mar 16, 2025, 03:37 PM

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LOS ANGELES – Disney’s live-action remakes of animated classics are usually safe bets. But a new version of the oldest of them all, Snow White, has become mired in controversies, receiving an unusually low-key premiere in Hollywood on March 15.

The studio kept its outspoken stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot away from reporters at the afternoon event, with no red-carpet interviews – and has avoided questions about the film’s divisive depictions of the Seven Dwarfs.

It follows a similarly pared-down European premiere on March 12 at a remote castle in Segovia, Spain, where few media outlets were invited.

The negativity began way back in 2021, with the casting of Zegler, who is Latina, as Snow White – a character from a German fairy tale who was famously “the fairest of them all”. This was predictably slammed as “woke” by some fans and conservative commentators.

“Yes, I am Snow White. No, I am not bleaching my skin for the role,” wrote Zegler, an American actress of Colombian and Polish descent, in a since-deleted tweet.