Gal Gadot To Play Evil Queen In Disney's Live-Action Remake Of 'Snow White'

Walt Disney Co. DIS has cast Gal Gadot to play the Evil Queen in a live-action adaptation of its 1937 animated feature “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

What Happened: Disney has already signed Rachel Zegler to play Snow White. Zegler is also starring as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story,” which is also a Disney release via its 20th Century Studios division. Marc Webb, who directed the 2012 “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its 2014 sequel, will direct the new film.

Gadot’s latest film, “Red Notice,” co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds and will premiere on Netflix NFLX. Her next big-screen release is “Death on the Nile” via 20th Century Studios. The film was shot in 2019 but its premiere was delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rape allegations made against her co-star Armie Hammer earlier this year by a woman in Los Angeles (the case is still under investigation).

Related Link: Disney Revives 'Hocus Pocus' And 'Atlantis: The Lost Continent' For New Films

Why It Matters: Disney has repeatedly raided its archives in recent years to produce live-action remakes of its animated classics, most recently with a new version of “The Little Mermaid” that was filmed in England and Sardinia earlier this year for a 2023 release.

According to a Deadline report citing unnamed sources, the new “Snow White” will expand upon the 1937 film’s story and will include new music by Oscar- and Tony-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was Disney’s first feature-length animated film. The production was a major commercial hit and was briefly the top-grossing film of all time; it was displaced by “Gone with the Wind.”

Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for the film that consisted of a regular-sized Oscar and seven miniature Oscars; the film also received an Oscar nomination for its musical score, making it the first animated film to compete in an award category against narrative films for Hollywood’s top prize.

Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons