The Walt Disney Company did an about-face this week, reversing its previous denials about the leaked photos from its upcoming reboot of “Snow White,” the New York Post reported.
Last week, the UK Daily Mail published a series of still shots purportedly from the filming of the new live-action adaptation of Disney’s iconic 1937 animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in an article titled, “EXCLUSIVE: Snow White and the Seven … Politically-Correct Companions?“
The photos feature a Latino Snow White accompanied by one dwarf and six random people of various heights, ethnicity, and genders who look less like they are “off to work” and more like they are heading to Woodstock to see Hendrix.
The images quickly went viral on social media, with many mocking Disney’s overly-accommodating effort at diversity.
Initially, Disney denied that the photos were from its production, telling The Daily Beast that they were “fake.”
But a short time later, Disney reversed course, telling The Daily Beast that the photos published in the Daily Mail were not “official” photos from the production.
It probably didn’t help that the original article in the Daily Mail incorrectly identified two of the people in the photo as actors Rachel Zegler and Andrew Burnap.
This was not the case. The people erroneously identified as Zegler and Burnap were in reality their stand-ins.
Disney first announced the live-action version of Snow White last year.
But after actor Peter Dinklage (the “imp” Tyrion Lannister from “Game of Thrones”) criticized the reboot for its negative portrayal of dwarfs, the company announced that it had consulted with “members of the dwarfism community” and planned to take “a different approach” with “the seven characters.”
The politically-correct live-action “Snow White” is slated for release in March of next year.
