Disney's desperate new plot to save Rachel Zegler's troubled Snow White

AT first glance, the European premiere of Snow White looks as magical as the fairytale itself. There, in a gown as pure and white as driven snow , is its star Rachel Zegler , singing her heart out for a small crowd of tearful fans. Behind her is the very castle said to have inspired Disney’s original animators - complete with its romantic turrets and battlements.

Throw in some crooning woodland creatures and Walt himself could not have painted a prettier picture. But just like with any fairytale, scratch beneath the surface and the reality is a little more grim(m). This ‘grand’ European premiere on Wednesday night was actually a small, select event at the conveniently-remote Segovia Castle , set in a rural area of just 51,000 people somewhat north of Madrid.



The guests were friendly influencers, no press was invited and no date was confirmed in media diaries. It couldn’t be further from the usual glitzy Leicester Square premieres other Disney movies have enjoyed. But the £218m movie isn’t going to be getting the big, noisy showy debut many might have expected.

For forget the poisoned apple, Disney’s live action Snow White has become such a poisoned chalice, its whole press tour has had to be scaled back. A London premiere is off the table altogether, for fears of ‘anti-woke’ protestors and more PR disasters from its outspoken stars, Rachel and ‘Evil Queen’ Gal Gadot. The LA premiere has banned journalist questions on the red carpet.

And all TV interviews are being kept to a few “safe” outlets . Meanwhile Rachel was the only star at an launch event in Japan last week. “This is definitely not what you expect of a movie of this size,” says one industry source, who’s previously worked with the media giant.

“They’ve somehow managed to upset the right, the left and loads of people inbetween. And now it’s almost like they just want to get its release over and done with.” So why is the ‘charming’ Disney tale causing quite such a stir? It started with the casting of Rachel , who starred in 2021’s West Side Story reboot.

The choice was dubbed “woke” by right-wingers and Disney die-hards, as Latina Rachel, who is of Colombian descent, did not have the famous “skin as white as snow”. Left-wingers immediately called out the racism but Rachel further upset Disney traditionalists by attacking the original 1937 movie in a 2022 interview. With feminist groups already calling out Disney for remaking a ‘sexist’ movie about a non-consensual kiss, Rachel added fuel to the right-wingers’ ire - calling its representation of women “extremely dated” .

She added: “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird.” She went on to suggest the romantic plot could be cut from the version entirely - a claim later refuted by Disney - and admitted she’d only seen the original once.

“I was scared of the original version,” she said. “I think I watched it once and never picked it up again.” Rachel, 23, then attracted further backlash from ardent MAGA supporters as after President Donald Trump ’s re-election last November, she posted: “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.

” She apologised two days later. However it’s the Disney movie’s unexpected venture into geopolitics which could have the biggest effect on its Box Office. Rachel has promoted the Free Palestine movement on social media.

Meanwhile her Israeli co-star Gal, who fought in the the Israeli Defence Force before shooting to fame as DC’s Wonder Woman , has been vocally supporting her home country online. The 39-year-old also gave a passionate speech, calling out certain Pro-Palestine protestors, at last week’s Anti-Defamation League summit in New York. “Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world , we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews,” she said.

Other franchises have seen movies boycotted and premieres protested after stars have taken sides in the conflict. Sadly for Disney - who has had mixed success with its live remakes - the trouble doesn’t end there. They’ve also been accused of “ablism” because of the seven dwarves .

Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage told Mark Maron’s WTF podcast: “It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way [casting Rachel as Snow White] and you’re still making that f***ing backwards story about seven dwarves living in a cave together?” Disney responded by changing the dwarves to “seven magical creatures” of all sizes, which would be partly created with CGI. But that, in turn, upset: the anti-woke brigade; actors who were campaigning against CGI taking their jobs (another passion cause of Rachel’s); and even some dwarf actors - with then arguing that it was taking work away from them, that it’s good for children to see real dwarves on screen and that the rewrite could have a trickle down effect to pantomimes, affecting hundreds of jobs.

Actor Choon Tan , 31, from north London, who has dwarfism, said: “There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf. As long as we are treated equally and with respect. There are plenty of actors who are capable and would have loved to have played these roles and [they’ve] just taken away one of the few opportunities that we have.

” So with everyone Grumpy and hardly a soul Happy, will we heigh-Ho-ing our way to the cinema when it opens next week?. Or will miscalculating Disney execs be taking a long hard look in the Magic Mirror ? Disney+ has brought back its popular deal that lets new and returning customers join its Standard with Ads plan for £1.99 a month for three months.

This means members can stream hit shows like Only Murders in the Building, The Bear and Shōgun, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel, for a fraction of the usual price..