Looks like Rachel Zegler will need to practice biting into apples and passing out. Set to make her big break in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake (and again in Shazam! Fury of the Gods), Zegler has been tapped to play Snow White in Disney‘s upcoming live-action adaptation of its animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“Rachel’s extraordinary vocal abilities are just the beginning of her gifts,” said Marc Webb, the director of the upcoming film. “Her strength, intelligence, and optimism will become an integral part of rediscovering the joy in this classic Disney fairytale.”
Deadline reports that Rachel Zegler has long been in the running for the role, but it was early footage from West Side Story that really pushed her over the top for Disney execs for Snow White. The casting further diversifies the cast of princesses in the live-action films after Halle Bailey was cast in the role of Ariel for the live-action The Little Mermaid.
Snow White will be an adaptation of the movie that kicked off Disney’s decades-long dominance of animated film and built an entire media empire. It has long been in the works, but Disney was struggling with the music, which it wanted to get just right. The original movie has songs, of course, but they are few and far between and a bit dated. So it has brought in Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen) to flesh the film out into a full-blown musical.
Snow White does not have a release date, but production is set to begin next year.
