For nearly a century, Disney films have captured the hearts of children and adults alike through their animated retellings of classic fairy tales. Through an increase in acquisitions like Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and National Geographic, Disney has expanded its empire to a variety of genres and projects.
The media empire’s latest endeavor has been creating live-action remakes of their biggest animated hits. From “Cinderella” to “The Lion King,” there have been 18 remakes released in the past 15 years, with additional remakes of movies like “Lilo and Stitch” and “Snow White” on the horizon. While most of these remakes have been met with mixed to positive reactions, a recent trend of diversifying casting has been met with harsh criticism from fans who are partial to the specifics of the cartoon childhood Disney classics.
Until “The Little Mermaid,” all of Disney’s live-action remakes cast actors who looked similar to the cartoon version of their remake. This caused a lack of opportunity for people of color, as the heroines of Disney films are predominantly white. There are very few princesses who young girls of color can see themselves represented in, and with Disney retelling old stories with white actors instead of telling new stories that put people of color in the spotlight, there was — and still is — a severe lack of representation in Disney movies.
The most recent Disney live-action adaptation release was “The Little Mermaid” released in 2023 and starring Halle Bailey, one–half of the R&B musical duo Chloe x Halle. In 2019, when Disney announced Bailey would play Ariel, there was racial pushback from those who were expecting the casting to be more accurate to the cartoon. Some fans were upset that Bailey, a Black actress, had received the role over someone who looked more like the animated version of the character.
This criticism based on racist beliefs only intensified when the first teaser trailer for the film was released in 2022. Many critics expressed online and through social media that they believed Bailey would not be able to portray the character well because she does not share physical features with the animated character from the 1989 film. The protests against Bailey’s casting reached a point where there was an online petition being circulated to recast the role with a white actress. Upon its release, the film received an audience score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6% higher than the audience score of the 1989 film, and the movie’s reviews consistently noted Bailey as a standout performer.
The controversy behind Disney’s casting resurfaced in 2021, when Disney announced that Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler would be portraying the titular role in Disney’s live-action remake of “Snow White,” set to release in March 2025. This announcement received almost immediate backlash from individuals who did not want a Latina actress playing a character whose story described her to have “skin as white as snow.” For Zegler, this proved to be only the first in a series of controversies regarding her in the role.
In September 2022, Zegler was interviewed by Variety about the upcoming movie with Gal Gadot, who will portray the Evil Queen. The pair discussed the changes between the original 1937 film and the live-action remake. In the interview, they shared that in the upcoming movie, Snow White will not be focused on true love or being saved by the prince in an effort to inject more modern values into the over 200-year-old story. In the aftermath of this interview, Zegler received an abundance of hate and death threats on social media for her comments. Gadot, who made the same comments in the interview with Zegler and agreed with the movie’s new vision, did not seem to receive any backlash. Over a year later, while Zegler has regained some public support, discourse about the upcoming film has continued to grow.
Despite the negativity surrounding Disney’s recent casting choices, many fans showed public support and proved why diversity in casting is so vital. When the first teaser trailer for “The Little Mermaid” was released in September of 2022, Black parents started posting TikTok videos of their young daughters reacting to the trailer. In many of these videos, the girls are completely awestruck upon seeing Bailey and are so excited to see one of their favorite princesses look like them. These videos showcase the positive effects of young children seeing characters on screen who look like them.
In December 2023, Zegler and Bailey were featured in an episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series, where they discussed the criticism they received for playing their roles. They agreed that the hardships they had faced had only made them stronger people, and that they were thankful for the experience to play their respective roles. They both emphasized that they do not intend to respond directly to the negativity they face, and instead choose to use it as fuel to work even harder and inspire the young individuals who they strive to make proud.
Disney’s response to the backlash faced from fans showed support for diverse casting and stood behind their choices amid controversy. Rob Marshall, director of “The Little Mermaid,” spoke with People about the protests against Bailey’s casting and defended the star. He expressed how shocked he had been that people were still getting upset over a person of color leading a film. He said he was proud of the casting choice and reminded people that there was so much good that came from Bailey’s performance, and that children seeing themselves represented on screen is vital. He also brought up the connection this situation has to the movie’s story, saying that a key theme in “The Little Mermaid” is loving and celebrating those who are different from you.
Disney isn’t the only studio that has recently adopted a practice of changing a character’s race. The popular Netflix series “Bridgerton,” based on the series of novels by Julia Quinn, has cast several characters much differently than how they were depicted in the books. In September 2024, it was announced that Yerin Ha, a Korean-Australian actress, would portray the role of Sophie Beckett in Season 4 of the show. However, to reflect the character’s change in culture, it was also announced that Sophie’s surname would be changed from Beckett to Baek. According to Ha, this came from an effort to make the character feel like it fit her more, rather than her trying to fit into a character written as white. This may be signifying a trend in the future of Hollywood castings outside of the Disney bubble.
With over 15 Disney live-action movies announced and in the works, the company has not let the negative pushback delay their plans to continue with their new style of movies. With casting announcements for movies such as “Hercules,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Robin Hood” yet to be revealed, it will be interesting to see if Disney’s future casting decisions are affected by the controversy. The studio has made history with their latest films and inspired thousands of young girls, and many fans are still looking to the horizon to see what will come next.
