Disney now says those Snow White photos are simply "not official" [Updated]
The photos that sparked conservative backlash were initially shared by British tabloid Daily Mail
[Update July 14 6:35 pm]: After initially telling The Daily Beast that the Snow White set photos were fake, a spokesperson now says that the photos are in fact from the production, but are not official photos. We regret the error (and, in our mind, they still look pretty fake). The following story has been updated to reflect this fact.
People who love to be mad and loud on the internet really do just jump at any possible opportunity to get really mad and really loud—even opportunities that are very clearly produced with that exact purpose in mind.
Case in point: if you saw Rachel Zegler trending on Twitter today, you might have been surprised to pull up an “exclusive” set photo of the actress from Disney’s upcoming Snow White remake. Zegler’s casting already sparked a limited but loud backlash from a handful of people opposed to the casting of a Latina Snow White. But the mixed race and gender group of dwarves also sparked fresh backlash from Twitter users like Libs of TikTok and right-wing commentator Matt Walsh, who threw little temper tantrums.
The photos in question were initially shared by British tabloid Daily Mail under the concise and snappy headline: “EXCLUSIVE: Snow White and the Seven… Politically-Correct Companions? First pictures of new live-action remake of Disney classic shows stand-in princess walking with diverse band of merry men and women after row over using dwarf actors.”
As the Daily Mail points out, Disney also faced backlash over their decision to remake this particular film from Peter Dinklage and the dwarfism community (a controversy the company addressed in an unsurprisingly vague statement).
Earlier this afternoon, a Disney spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “The photos are fake and not from our production. We are currently trying to have the Daily Mail issue a correction.” Of course, that story has now changed, and these photos are now simply not official.
No official photos have been released from the Snow White set as of yet, but, based on the internet’s initial reaction to that one behind-the-scenes look at Zegler in the iconic blue and yellow gown back in May, we’re sure it will be abundantly clear when they are. Now that that’s settled, can we get back to arguing about the real issue with all of these remakes, which is: why?