With live-action ‘Snow White,’ Disney finds itself again in culture war crosshairs

Almost from the beginning, Walt Disney Co.’s “Snow White” live-action remake became a political lightning rod.

First, it was the racist backlash to the casting of actor Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent on her mother’s side, as the titular character who canonically had “skin as white as snow.”

Then, die-hard fans got up in arms about Zegler’s comments that the story would be updated for modern times, putting less emphasis on Snow White’s dreams of Prince Charming. The royal love interest “literally stalks” the princess in the original 1937 animated film, she said.

Along the way, the film has also battled questions about its depiction of little people and its leading actors’ viewpoints on the Israel-Hamas war. Zegler has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians, while Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, has voiced support for Israel, where she was born and served the mandatory two years in the Israeli army.

All of these issues are colliding ahead of the film’s theatrical opening next week, a high-stakes debut for Burbank-based Disney. The movie, which reportedly cost $250 million to make before marketing expenses, is the latest in the company’s mostly successful strategy of rebooting animated classics.

In the Disney vault, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Walt Disney’s first full-length animated feature film, is considered among the fairest of them all.

But now it becomes the latest Disney redo to go through the culture war buzzsaw. Previously, actor Halle Bailey, who is Black and starred in the 2023 “Little Mermaid” remake, faced racist backlash after being cast as Ariel, who was white in the 1989 animated film.

The company has frequently been a tinderbox: for diverse casting in its “Star Wars” franchise and for its opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Florida, which led to a prolonged battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis. Disney has also been on the receiving end of intense conservative criticism over diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“Disney is now the most storied brand in America; if you are that, you have a target on your forehead,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “This is not the little animation outfit Walt Disney created. When you’re a mega-corporation ... every single issue you deal with is part of a globally interlinked, horribly complex map that you can’t avoid.”

Disney will host a Hollywood premiere this weekend for the film at its El Capitan Theatre, though there will be no press line to interview actors along the red carpet. (Journalists will, however, be in attendance at the premiere.)

Disney did not make executives available to comment.

How this myriad of issues will influence the box office performance of “Snow White” is an open question, analysts and industry experts said. If the movie is good enough, it could cut through the cultural noise. Critics’ reviews have not been published yet.

“Do they actually have a terrific movie?” Galloway said. “If they do, it will obliterate all the other concerns. If they don’t, it’ll feed the narrative.”

Live-action remakes of Disney’s animated films have become a cornerstone of the studio’s film strategy.

“Snow White” is currently tracking for a $50-million opening weekend at the box office in the U.S. and Canada, according to people who have reviewed pre-release audience surveys.

That figure is below average compared with Disney’s past live-action remakes, according to analysts. But that may be due to the older nature of the film’s intellectual property, rather than the current controversies, said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at movie ticket seller Fandango and founder of tracking site Box Office Theory.

Many previous live-action remakes, such as 2019’s “Lion King” (which had a $191.8-million domestic opening), 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($174.8 million), 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” ($95.6 million) and 2019’s “Aladdin” ($91.5 million) were based on animated films released in the late 1980s and early ’90s — part of the so-called Disney Renaissance period. Those efforts appealed to the nostalgia of millennials and Gen X moviegoers, many of whom now have children of their own, Robbins said.

Another success — 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland,” which brought in $116 million in its opening weekend — had the benefit of being one of Disney’s early live-action remakes.

Despite Snow White’s presence at Disney theme parks, the character and her story may be less recognizable to a younger audience, Robbins said.

“That’s probably going to play into the generational appeal that is usually a factor for other remakes on the Disney side,” he said. Though, “there’s no question that some of the other narratives that have developed around ‘Snow White’ over the last year or so aren’t helping matters.”

But even a poorer performance from “Snow White” won’t halt Disney’s live-action plans. The company is preparing to release a live-action version of “Lilo and Stitch” in May, and has also announced a remake of the 2016 animated film “Moana.”

“Snow White” has little competition right now in the family film market: Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Minecraft,” based on the gaming franchise, in April. Other options for children earlier this year included Universal Pictures’ “Dog Man” and StudioCanal’s “Paddington in Peru,” which was distributed by Sony.

“There is something to be said that family movies have been holding up the box office recently in the last few months,” Robbins said.