Marc Webb’s live-action Snow White is many things: it’s an attempt to update Disney’s animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, yet it also greatly pales in comparison to said animated classic. It’s also another reminder that Disney will more than likely keep cranking out live-action versions of its movies until the heat death of the universe. But it was also the target of controversy, with Rachel Zegler (unfairly) taking most of the heat. It eventually led to a muted premiere and an equally muted critical reception, but a large part of that is due to the online vitriol surrounding the film.
Most of it has been directed at Zegler due to thinly veiled racism, yet this isn’t the first time a controversy like this has happened. As more blockbusters have either attempted to expand their casts or try to push a franchise forward, fans take to the keyboards to vent their displeasure, and studios bend over backwards to appease them and audience members who aren’t perpetually online or eternally judgmental. Most importantly, it’s a poisoned apple that the film industry shouldn’t be biting into.
‘Snow White’ Isn’t the First Blockbuster To Infuriate the Internet

The so-called “controversy” surrounding Snow White is only the latest in a series of incidents plaguing certain blockbusters. More often than not, these reactions boil down to an online fandom who takes offense to a story that tries to center itself on a female or POC perspective, or seemingly “damages” the brand by going in a new direction. When Paul Feig announced that Ghostbusters: Answer the Call would feature an all-female cast of comedians, the backlash was loud and ugly. Kathleen Kennedy, despite literal decades of experience producing movies like Jurassic Park and Back to the Future, was demonized online for her decisions surrounding the Star Wars fandom to the point where people were cheering the fact that she might be retiring — a story that she quickly debunked. Recently, the first reveal of Shrek 5 led to calls to bully DreamWorks into trying to rework the animation so that it resembles the original Shrek, similar to how Sonic the Hedgehog was redesigned from his “ugly form”. Those fans seem to forget that the Shrek franchise has always been in flux animation-wise, or that it apparently took $5 million to redesign Sonic.

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Attempts to appease fandoms rarely work, either. When Max was first launched, the decision was made to release Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021 to try and take advantage of the fanbase who wanted to see Zack Snyder’s take on the DC Universe. After all, they’d kept up a long campaign for nearly five years, and if they could buy a Max subscription, all the better. But this only opened another can of worms, as the focus then shifted from “Release The Snyder Cut” to “Restore the SnyderVerse.” Matters weren’t helped when James Gunn and Peter Safran were named heads of DC Studios. Fans of Snyder’s work were less than happy with this decision, mainly due to Gunn’s work on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel Studios, and have made attempts to call for boycotts of DC films that Snyder isn’t involved with, despite the fact that Snyder and Gunn have no bad blood. Whether it ignored the controversy or tried to downplay it, Snow White would have faced backlash.
Hollywood Tries To Appease Online Fans, but It Rarely Works

Image via Disney

In its attempts to win over fans, Disney poured every ounce of effort into trying to smooth over the controversy surrounding Snow White. It attempted to hire a social media coach for Zegler, scheduled separate press junkets for her and Gal Gadot, and restricted coverage of the premiere to photos only. Clearly, none of it worked, but it shows how studios will often bend over backwards to appease people online. Whether it’s the floated proposal of bringing “superfans” onboard to try and direct the flow of a feature film, or the Academy Awards’ “Cheer-Worthy Moments” — an exercise that was wisely abandoned — it reeks of desperation.

Worse still, it ignores the fact that you cannot make everyone on the internet happy. There is always going to be a portion of fans who find fault with a film, no matter how well-crafted or well-meaning, and attempting to gain their favor is a Sisyphean task. That’s not even accounting for the fact that the internet rarely reflects real life. Despite people clamoring online that they want to see more original films in theaters, films like Black Bag and Mickey 17 struggle to turn a profit, while Snow White has fared slightly better due to the fact that it’s a known property.
If Filmmakers Make a Decision, Studios Should Back Them Up

Image via Disney

When Rachel Zegler first discussed Snow White at D23, she mentioned how she felt that Prince Charming was a “stalker” and that the live-action version would take steps to rectify this. True to her words, the live-action film features a subplot where Snow White falls for Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a young man who leads a rebellion against Gadot’s evil queen. It was a genuinely intriguing update of the source material, and rather than try to do damage control, Disney should have stuck with it. Instead, this is a continuation of studios backtracking on bold storytelling due to online backlash. This, for example, has led to a planned trilogy of Star Wars movies by Rian Johnson being placed on the back burner and Max’s decision to remove Looney Tunes shorts from the streamer.
This backlash comes at a time when pressure is being put on stories to exclude anything that could be compelling or genuinely interesting, and that’s not the approach films should take. While Snow White probably wasn’t going to be a clever subversion in the vein of Barbie, it and its star deserved far better than to be at the center of an inane controversy. And unless Hollywood wises up, it’ll continue to take bites out of the same poisoned apple.
Snow White is in theaters now.
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Snow White

Release Date

March 21, 2025

Runtime

109 Minutes

Director

Marc Webb

Writers

Erin Cressida Wilson, Wilhelm Grimm

Producers

Callum McDougall, Marc Platt