There has been a lot of talk leading up to the release of Snow White (2025). The controversy has been manifested in many forms. From racists looking for any excuse to put down racial diversity, to average spectators confused about Disney’s choices with the film and the company’s obsession with remaking everything that have already done instead of coming up with new products.

How much of all that social-media noise actually makes any sense? Well, yours truly is here to unpack the drama and provide a reasonable and comprehensible point of view.

Snow White isn’t white

Let’s first tackle the elephant in the room: Snow White is not white. This has been an issue for many since Disney announced Rachel Zegler as the lead of the film. A move that seems more like a stunt than a true attempt at bringing DEI into cinema. Why might one think that? Well, it all started with the “feminist” stunt in Avengers: Endgame (2019). One of the most ridiculous moves pulled by the company.

Precedents

Despite Marvel being one of the few franchises that showcased strong, inspiring female characters that made you want to learn martial arts and kick ass in the business world, they got a lot of criticism over not having a movie where a woman was the main character. A reasonable request that Disney turned into a marketing strategy, releasing products with easily-digestible feminism and featuring scenes with all their female members posing together in the middle of a war for no reason (the aforementioned Endgame stunt).

This over-compensation reeked of desperation to make more money by joining any social movement that happened to be in fashion, rather than a real attempt to improve by doing proper research and showcasing actually relatable characters. It is not difficult to please your audience, you just need to listen. Films like Black Panther (2018) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) understood the assignment. It is not about slapping minorities in your products at random. It is about giving visibility to all those who never have it, COHERENTLY.

The Disney OGs

Trying to make their products more diverse and relatable for as many people as possible is a noble goal. All studios should be aspiring to it. Sadly, not all Disney products are hitting the mark.

Before Snow White, there was a lot of controversy over The Little Mermaid (2023). Now, this critic is of the mindset that equality is achieved by creating new products that include more diversity rather than trying to rewrite the old works into something they are not. However, setting the story in the Caribbean is a genius move. You change the story and the lead, and not only it makes sense, but it is also innovative.

In fact, 2023’s The Little Mermaid is the perfect example of interest over greed. You can become a more inclusive brand regardless of where you get your source material. You only need to get the right people in the project. People who are there because they believe in those same values. Because they want to celebrate that diversity accurately, not as a selling strategy.

The name game

That being said, Snow White’s rewrite is a lot trickier due to her name. A bold move that Disney has not been able to pull off. For those of you who might not remember the classic story, Snow White is named so because when she is born, she has “skin as white as snow, a blush as red as blood, and hair dark as ebony wood”.

Under these circumstances, arguably the biggest question one has when entering the cinema is: how on Earth did they get around that? Well, their explanation is she was born during a snow storm. An incredibly vague justification that only serves to convince you further of the fact that they should be making new stories instead of repurposing the old ones over, and over, and over again.

A numbers game

Still, even if one is willing to put up with the ridiculously weak patch-up which, to be fair, doesn’t impact the story at all, there is a DEI matter that is impossible to ignore. A detail in this feature that hints at the possibility that Disney might be joining the fashion of creating controversy for the sake of publicity.

This strategy, based on the principle that all publicity (even the negative) is good publicity, seems to be gaining traction. Other production companies, namely Netflix, have already benefitted from it with highly controversial products like Baby Reindeer (2024) and Emilia Pérez (2024). For this part, Disney seems to be turning white Disney princesses into black Disney princesses for their live-action version. This move is not inherently bad or wrong, The Little Mermaid story gained a new perspective thanks to it.

The irony of it all

However, there is another key decision in the production of Snow White that, added to the lack of imagination or interest put into explaining her name, points to a merely economic goal, not social. Snow White’s obvious opening for DEI was in the 1937’s title Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You have the chance to give seven actors of short stature a job. Thus promoting visibility to a community that is often ignored.

If it is visibility and equity that you are aiming for, this film gives you a unique chance. Yet, they chose to make seven CGI miners and cast a non-white actress for the role of Snow White. There is nothing wrong with the latter, as it makes sense within the story. But this particular double-standard raises some questions about the intention behind it. Was it to add some diversity, or simply to create some drama and get free publicity out of it?

Conclusion

The drama around Snow White is a great example of how audiences are manipulated into thinking and talking about things they don’t really know about. The truth is, at the end of the day, none of the most popular topics around the feature have any relevance at all within the work itself. If anything, they are the perfect distraction so you won’t notice the real issues of the movie, most of which are covered in the Snow White review.

Evil doesn’t always loose

It is a sad truth that the most popular content online is the one fuelled by hate. Positive posts never get as many likes, shares and comments as those design to provoke a negative reaction, especially those that channel your prejudice or core beliefs.

Because of this, we, as audiences, need to stop from time to time and actually think about how relevant the content we are consuming is, and how much of our energy and time we want to dedicate to it. Thinking pragmatically, it is a lot less time-consuming to watch the film yourself and draw your own conclusions about the relevance of all these dramas, than it is to consume ALL the social media about the subject.

All in all, remember that not all posts tell the truth, nobody is 100% objective, and it is important to go to the source before passing judgement yourself. Especially if that judgement is centred around hating on a film you haven’t watched or a person you don’t know.

What’s your take? Have you watched Snow White? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀