Snow White (2025)/Production

Production

Development

On October 31, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Walt Disney Pictures was developing a live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Marc Platt, an avid fan of the original film, signed on as lead producer and Erin Cressida Wilson being in talks to write the screenplay. Callum McDougall, in his third producing collaboration with Disney and Platt, serves as an executive producer. Disney had been considering a live-action Snow White film since the early 2000s and at one point planned on adapting the story as a martial arts film set in China.

On May 30, 2019, it was reported that Marc Webb was in talks to direct. In November 2021, Greta Gerwig was reported to be co-writing the screenplay. Gurinder Chadha was also strongly considered for the directing job. Wilson ultimately received sole credit for the screenplay, with Gerwig receiving off-screen Additional Literary Material credit alongside Jez Butterworth, Steven Levenson, Jeff Nathanson, Victoria Strouse, and Chris Weitz.

Casting

In June 2021, Rachel Zegler was cast in the titular role, and in November, Gal Gadot was cast as the Evil Queen. On December 7, 2021, during an interview with Extra, Zegler revealed that Snow White would be a lot "stronger" than the original. Zegler's casting was solidified through a "glowing recommendation" to Webb from Steven Spielberg, who directed Zegler as María in his 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story. A new casting search was announced for an actress to star as a younger version of Snow White and Emilia Faucher was cast. On January 12, 2022, it was announced that Andrew Burnap was cast as a new character named Jonathan in the lead male role, replacing the character of The Prince. At the 2022 Denver Fan Expo, Martin Klebba revealed that he would be portraying Grumpy; Klebba previously played similar dwarf roles in prior productions based on the "Snow White" fairy tale: in the 2001 made-for-television film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All as Friday, and in the 2012 fantasy comedy Mirror Mirror as Butcher. Colin Michael Carmichael appears. In February 2025, it was announced that Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Jeremy Swift, and Andy Grotelueschen were all cast as the remaining members of the Seven Dwarfs, with Salazar and Grotelueschen both making their feature film acting debuts.

Filming

Filming for Snow White was originally set to begin in March 2020 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Los Angeles, California, but it was delayed to July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, it was announced that filming would take place in the United Kingdom from March to July 2022. Principal photography began on March 7, 2022. A fire damaged the production set on March 15 at Pinewood Studios; the stage was under construction when a tree reportedly caught on fire, leading to a huge blaze. A source from Disney confirmed that "no filming was underway". The shooting schedule was also reconfigured for Zegler to travel to Los Angeles to present at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony on March 27, in support of her West Side Story colleagues. While Zegler was attending the ceremony, Gadot began filming her scenes. Unlike in the original, her character sings and dances. On April 22, Gadot confirmed that she had completed filming her scenes, much later adding that she enjoyed playing the role of the first Disney villain and that she was able to make a more dramatic role by changing her voice due to the film being a musical. On July 13, Zegler revealed that filming had wrapped. Mandy Moore, known for her work on La La Land, choreographed the musical sequences.

Disney was unsatisfied with the film's original cut and ordered reshoots, which took place in June 2024. The resulting cut of the film replaced some of the originally intended ending with a new scene involving the Evil Queen and the Magic Mirror. The track "Snow White Returns" was also a late addition to the film. Much of the plotline involving the bandits was excised, as was a song titled "Hidden in My Heart", which was described by The New York Times as a "second-act...tear-jerker sung by one of the dwarfs."

Visual effects

Moving Picture Company, Framestore, Day For Nite, Passion Pictures, Vitality Visual Effects, Cheap Shot VFX, Lola Visual Effects and Crafty Apes provided the visual effects.