Live-Action Snow White Star Teases Key Change For Iconic Disney Character: “Leader Within Her”

Snow White star Rachel Zegler has explained how her character is going to be more of a leader in the new movie. The 2025 feature will be a live-action update of the iconic 1937 Walt Disney Animation Studios debut feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name. Zegler will star as Snow White opposite Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and an ensemble cast that also includes Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Colin Michael Carmichael, and Martin Klebba.

Collider recently had the opportunity to speak with Rachel Zegler about her role in the live-action Snow White movie. She explained one way that her iconic character will be updated in the upcoming movie will be the fact that she will harness the “leader within her.” Zegler said that she and director Marc Webb had conversations about this aspect of her character where they compared her arc to “her third eye opening.” Read Zegler’s full quote below:

Then something that kind of emerged was this leader within her that I was so happy that the writers wanted her to be, and the fact that it’s born out of her upbringing, but she finds it within herself throughout the course of the film and throughout the people that love her in the film and show their love for her. Marc Webb and I kind of called it her third eye opening. There’s a couple of scenes in there where she’s speaking like someone who’s been alive for much longer than she has, and that’s something that I relate to, something that I’ve been told all my life. So, getting to bring that to a character that I love so deeply and that I’ve spent so much time with now, it’s a really amazing thing as an actor and as a performer, and I can’t wait for people to get to see it.

Why It Makes Sense for Snow White to Embrace a Leadership Role

While this character change partially comes from the script for the new movie reflecting the changing social mores of the past eight and a half decades, there is precedent for the Snow White character to be a leader. While it takes place largely in a domestic sphere, Snow White comes into her own as a character when she encounters the seven dwarfs in the original movie. As she cooks and cleans in exchange for lodging with her new companions, she becomes the de facto head of household.

The opportunity to be in charge of a home is not one that was afforded to Snow White in her previous life. As the orphaned stepdaughter of the Evil Queen, she was forced to perform the duties of a scullery maid rather than take charge of the domestic duties in her own home. While the new Snow White will likely push that character arc even further, making her a character with more agency, the bones of a leadership narrative are already present.

Snow White could also potentially lean in on the implications inherent in the Happily Ever After of the iconic original Disney princess movie. Her romance with the Prince will likely eventually lead to her becoming the princess she was born to be. While Disney movies don’t typically include this element, being part of the royal family and in line for the throne does require leadership skills that the new Snow White will possibly be able to bring to the fore.