Disney has decided not to roll out the red carpet in London for its upcoming massive film release, Snow White.
Bosses are reportedly declining to hold a glitzy premiere in London, as would be expected for a major release such as this, in an attempt to ‘avoid backlash’ against the film.
The live action remake is understood to have updated the storyline to move away from elements present in the original 1937 animation – such as Snow White being a princess whose main function is to wait for a kiss from a prince to bring her back to life – which has been seen as a contentious move in some circles.
Therefore, Disney has allegedly decided not to hold a big cinematic celebration of the movie in the UK in an attempt to discourage any ‘anti-woke’ backlash and has opted for ‘a handful’ of carefully overseen press events instead.
A source told The Daily Mail: ‘Disney are already anticipating an anti-woke backlash against Snow White and have reduced the media schedule to just a handful of tightly controlled press events.
‘That is why they have taken the highly unusual step not to host a London premiere for the film and are minimising the amount of press questions that Rachel Zegler gets.’
Metro also understands that no interview junket was planned for the UK, as would normally be anticipated, with extremely limited press opportunities being controlled as part of a European-wide junket in another country instead.
The film kicked off its press run in Tokyo this week, with Zegler performing the film’s first new song, Waiting on a Wish, live onstage.
Snow White, rumoured to have a budget of around $296million (£208m), has already been an unfortunate magnate for controversy in the run-up to its delayed debut.
First the film was criticised ahead of its release for having Snow White played by Latinx actress Rachel Zegler, which has been seen as part of Disney’s recent push for more culturally representative storytelling, following Halle Berry’s turn as Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
The live-action remake has attracted ire in some circles for its updated approach (Picture: Disney)
Zegler, 23, has also drawn the ire of some fans for criticising the original film – released nearly 88 years ago – as ‘dated’.
She critiqued elements such as Snow White’s relationship with Prince Charming as a ‘guy who literally stalks her’ in an interview with ExtraTV at the Disney D23 Expo in September 2022, calling it ‘weird’, which rubbed some fans up the wrong way.
Her revelation in a separate interview with Variety at the event that Snow White was ‘not going to be dreaming about true love’ anymore and rather ‘about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true’, also upset former Disney designer David Hand, son of one of the 1937 film’s animators and supervising director, David Hand.
Calling it a ‘disgrace’, Hand added to The Telegraph: ‘I find it quite frankly a bit insulting [what] they may have done with some of these classic films. There’s no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did… I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves.’
After its original 2024 release date was postponed due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Snow White is now set for release on March 21.
When the first teaser trailer dropped in August 2024, it racked up more than 1.4 million dislikes from its 11 million views, based largely on what was seen as its overuse of CGI in the creation of the seven dwarfs.
They were previously reported as having been renamed and reimagined as ‘magical creatures’ instead, being portrayed by live actors.
Pro-Palestinian activists have also called for a boycott of the movie over Disney’s casting of Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the evil queen.
Gadot, who starred in the Wonder Woman movies, has publicly advocated for Israel over the years.
Meanwhile, Zegler promoted the film by thanking fans for their ‘love’ in response to the trailer in the summer, before adding on X: ‘And always remember, free Palestine.’
Snow White is out in cinemas on Friday, March 21.