Disney has found their newest princess. Rachel Zegler, the star of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story film, has been cast as Snow White in the studio’s new live-action remake of the animated classic.
Released in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was Disney’s first animated feature film. It also introduced their debut princess, thus setting the stage for dozens of others in the coming decades. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming live-action musical will be “a new take on the classic.” Fingers crossed it’s slightly less terrifying than the original movie, in which a princess is fed a poisoned apple by her stepmother, the queen, and enters a coma that can only be revived by a kiss from a prince.
This Snow White remake has been in the works for five years already, but it looks like it’s finally starting to take shape for real. Marc Webb will direct the feature film, and La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are writing new songs for the movie. There’s no word yet if timeless hits from the original movie, like “Heigh-Ho” or “Whistle While You Work”, will be incorporated into the soundtrack as well.
Related Video
The as-yet-untitled feature is expected to go into production in 2022. Before then, Zegler will make her highly anticipated screen debut in West Side Story. She was seventeen years old when a nationwide casting call handpicked her to star as the iconic lead Maria, and the first trailer and promo photos suggest she will charm viewers with ease. After being pushed back several time due to the pandemic, Spielberg’s West Side Story will hit theaters on December 10th.
