Will Rachel Zegler’s Political Post Derail Snow White’s Success?

Fans of Disney’s Snow White aren’t happy with the casting choice for the lead role. After choosing Rachel Zegler, the lead actress of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the young star has vocally and strongly criticized the original 1937 film.

Lately, Zegler rubbed salt on the wound by expressing a controversial political opinion. While promoting the live-action movie on X, she added the caption, “And always remember, free Palestine.”

Her divisive post earned well over 5 million views and almost 50,000 shares. It attracted numerous comments left by pro-Israel supporters who criticized her view and accused her of “backstabbing” her Israeli co-star Gal Gadot.

A few social media users challenged Zegler to share the sentiment in person with Gadot while others questioned the Walt Disney Company for casting her as Snow White.

On Facebook, one user shared, “I will never watch a movie with her. Anyone can hate Jews. But when Spielberg started your career and your costar is Gal Gadot, maybe trashing them isn’t a good idea.”

On YouTube, another comment read, “Disney made a 300 million bet on Zegler. Someone should be fired.”

Why the Hate?

Zegler has gotten a lot of online hate for showing disdain for the original Snow White movie that inspired the remake. The woke 23-year-old claimed to “hate” the classic animation, calling the fairytale “weird” and describing the prince as a “stalker.” 

In one of her infamous quotes, the actress said, “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937. We absolutely wrote a Snow White that … she’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love.”

“She’s going to be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true,” Zegler elaborated.

The fans who love the original story and were excited to see it come to life again have threatened to boycott the remake. Though the production was originally scheduled for a March 2024 release, it has since been delayed so that Disney could do some serious damage control.

A branding expert who has been following recent developments told DailyMail, “Whilst it’s been clear that the original Disney Princess films hold old values, Disney have fallen for the trap of going to the opposite extreme to inflict strong and loaded messaging on the viewers—believing that’s empowerment.”