By now, you'll surely be aware of the controversy surrounding Disney's live-action Snow White remake. While the decision to cast Rachel Zegler as the title character had drawn the expected, and unfortunate, ire of some people on social media, it's the movie's lack of Seven Dwarfs which most recently made headlines.
Set photos showed a group of diverse male and female actors accompanying Snow White, with only one little person among their ranks. Cries of Disney being "woke" and "politically correct" followed, but for true fans of the original 1937 movie, the group's exclusion comes as a disappointment.
Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey are an iconic part of this story, and replacing them with a group of regular old bandits...well, it doesn't quite sit right.
Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage was the movie's biggest detractor, praising Disney for casting a Latina actress as Snow White before questioning the decision to make the "f***ing backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave." To that, the studio responded by saying the group were being reimagined.
During a recent interview, former WWE Superstar Dylan Postl/Hornswoggle (Leprechaun: Origins) took aim at Dinklage for actually hurting his fellow little person actors with those remarks.
"There are actors, dwarf actors, that live that dream to be in a major motion picture such as this Disney remake, and now, because Peter Dinklage said what he said last year, now it's taken away, because of 'progression,'" Postl explains. "It's not right, because there [aren't] roles made for actors of my stature."
"Roles that aren't ever really given. I can't go out for the Harrison Ford or George Clooney roles because that's not for me. These dwarf roles are for people of my stature, and now it's taken away. I don't feel that's right, and not only that, but now, think about the additional stunt actors, or body doubles, now you're talking multiple actors of my stature that don't get these major roles."
"All of these dwarfs took care of Snow White," he continues. "They weren't these cave-dwelling monsters that people speak of. They all had seven different characteristics for seven different actors from my community."
It's a valid counterargument and the continued backlash surrounding Disney's decision to move away from the Seven Dwarfs could doom Marc Webb's reboot before we've even seen a trailer.
Also starring Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, Snow White is currently set to arrive in theaters on March 22, 2024.