Gal Gadot revealed her make-up for the Evil Queen in Snow White took four hours, and it will likely mean the movie avoids one major Disney problem. Snow White is the next in line for Disney’s live-action adaptations and is set to release in March 2024. With Marc Webb directing, Gadot stars alongside Rachel Zegler who will play Snow White, Andrew Burnap as Jonathan (a version of the Prince), and Martin Klebba as Grumpy.
Footage of Snow White was shown to audiences at this year’s D23, and it is expected to divert away from the original story, as Disney announced the seven dwarfs would be having a complete overhaul after backlash including Peter Dinklage’s comments to retire the seven dwarfs. Gadot’s Evil Queen will be largely familiar to audiences as she revealed in an interview with Zegler that her four-hour makeup was to create the Old Hag (via Variety). In the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Evil Queen turns into the Old Hag to trick Snow White into eating the poisoned apple; Gadot’s transformation into the Old Hag means this renowned part of the story will still play a big part in the new Snow White adaptation.
Gadot’s transformation into the Old Hag took four hours as it is done completely with prosthetics meaning Snow White will not be reliant on CGI. Other Disney live adaptation remakes, such as The Lion King and Pinocchio, are commended for their brilliant visuals and CGI, but the success of their visuals is at the cost of the story. Although the prosthetics do not guarantee Snow White or Gadot’s performance will be good, it does mean the focus is not on technology for the movie. The prosthetics give Snow White an advantage over the other live-action adaptations which will hopefully lead to a stronger narrative and character work, which has been lacking from Disney’s other adaptions that are slated for being useless remakes that add nothing new to the narrative.
What We Know About Disney's Live-Action Snow White Remake
News about Snow White has been kept quite under wraps, with not even Gadot and Zegler seeing the D23 footage. Aside from the overhaul of the dwarfs, set photos revealed Zegler’s Snow White will be dressed similarly to the 1937 original (via Twitter). However, Disney will be moving away from its damsel-in-distress narrative from the original Snow White and Zegler’s Snow White will be fighting alongside Jonathan on the battlefield.
Snow White will be a musical with new songs and characters and is written by Greta Gerwig, though the current synopsis does not offer much context, or reveal any new information about the story. Unlike some of its new live-action adaptations, Disney will be releasing Snow White in theaters, before making its way to Disney+, and will be released on March 22nd, 2024. By moving away from Disney’s CGI obsession which is affecting more than just Disney classics, and releasing in theatres, it is promising that Snow White will be able to avoid Disney’s major live adaptation problem.