Live-Action Snow White’s Dwarfs Make The Casting Controversy Even Worse

When Disney released a first-look image from its upcoming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs live-action remake, simply titled Snow White, it didn’t help the film’s casting controversy. The new version of Snow White stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. It’s directed by The Amazing Spider-Man’s Marc Webb from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson and Barbie’s Greta Gerwig. Snow White was originally set to be released on March 22, 2024, but it’s been delayed until March 21, 2025, due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Since its announcement, Snow White has generated a lot more vitriol than the average Disney remake. From the remake’s changes to the story to Zegler’s comments dismissing the original movie, there are plenty of controversies surrounding Snow White. One of the most polarizing aspects of the production was Disney’s decision to only cast one actor – Martin Klebba – to play all seven dwarfs. Based on the first trailer for Snow White, it seems that the dwarfs have been made CGI characters, which makes it feel worse that Disney didn’t just cast seven different actors with dwarfism in these roles.

Snow White’s CGI-Looking Dwarfs Are The Result Of Disney’s Casting

Peter Dinklage Spoke Out Against The New Take On The Dwarfs

The uncanny valley CGI dwarfs in the Snow White remake are a result of Disney’s controversial casting decision. Instead of casting multiple actors, the Mouse House hired Klebba to play each of the seven dwarfs, so they have to be CGI’d into scenes where they are all together in some fashion. This is similar to how Temuera Morrison played all the clones in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but where those clones were canonically identical, whereas the dwarfs are all supposed to be separate, distinctive characters.

The choice to retell the story with the dwarfs at all was met with some backlash. Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage made headlines when he criticized Disney for continuing to tell a “backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.” The responses to Dinklage’s comments were mixed, with detractors claiming that removing the dwarfs from the story would take opportunities away from actors with dwarfism, which Disney’s CGI is doing anyway.

Disney’s Live-Action Snow White Would’ve Been Better Off With Casting More Actors With Dwarfism

Many Have Claimed The Movie Took Jobs From Underrepresented Dwarf Actors

Disney would have been better off casting seven actors with dwarfism to play the dwarfs in its Snow White remake. First and foremost, this would offer more opportunities to underrepresented actors in the dwarfism community. But it would also likely save the studio money because they wouldn’t need to use CGI in every single shot featuring more than one of the dwarfs. Disney is already in hot water over this Snow White remake, and CGI-ing one actor to play every dwarf isn’t helping.

Wonka Had A Similar Controversy

Hugh Grant’s Role As An Oompa Loompa Also Drew Criticism

While the Snow White dwarfs in live-action was a tricky situation to address, the upcoming Disney film could have looked at another recent movie for an idea of the kind of controversy they were courting. Wonka is the prequel musical starring Timothée Chalamet as young Willy Wonka and the origins of him as an amazing chocolatier. The movie also includes his first meeting with an Oompa Loompa, the tiny people who eventually come to work in his chocolate factory.

In 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were all played by actors with dwarfism, while 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had Deep Roy playing them all. Wonka decided to go in a new direction by casting Hugh Grant in the role and using CGI to make him smaller. Despite making him impossibly small in an attempt to avoid any such controversy, the Wonka Oompa Loompa casting was called out by several actors with dwarfism. Actor George Coppen suggested such casting choices take away the already very few jobs available to dwarf actors (via BBC):

“A lot of actors [with dwarfism] feel like we are being pushed out of the industry we love. A lot of people, myself included, argue that dwarfs should be offered everyday roles in dramas and soaps, but we aren’t getting offered those roles. One door is being closed but they have forgotten to open the next one.”

While Snow White has been targeted for its depiction of the dwarfs, it is clearly not the only movie that has raised controversy on this issue. With such a high-profile movie bringing the casting problem into the mainstream, it will be interesting to see what becomes of the Snow White controversy.

Disney’s Snow White

Snow White is a live-action adaptation of the 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Directed by Marc Webb, this newest iteration of the iconic character stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White alongside Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Originally slated to release in 2024, Snow White was delayed a year to 2025 partly due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Director

Marc Webb

Release Date

March 21, 2025

Cast

Rachel Zegler , Gal Gadot , Andrew Burnap , Ansu Kabia