Peter Dinklage slams Snow White remake (UPDATE: Disney responds)

Disney has been busy over the last several years cranking out remakes of some of its animated classics, including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin and more. Next on the block is a remake of Disney’s first feature ever: 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In the role of Snow White, Disney has cast West Side Story star Rachel Zegler, while Wonder Woman veteran Gal Gadot will play the Evil Queen.

And then there are the seven dwarfs: Happy, Sleepy, Dopey and the rest. Disney hasn’t said anything about them yet, and at least one actor would like it to stay way: Game of Thrones veteran Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) made his feelings very clear on a recent episode of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.

Peter Dinklage doesn’t know why Disney would remake this “f**king backwards” story

“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on,” Dinklage said. “Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White. But you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me.”

"You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f**king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f**k are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough. I don’t know which studio that is but they were so proud of it. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, what are you doing?"

Dinklage said that he would be excited if this remake retold the original fairytale with “a f**ked up, cool or progressive spin on it,” but is very much baffled over the idea of a straight retelling. To be fair, Disney hasn’t announced what (if anything) it’s doing with the dwarfs for this remake yet. For all we know, the studio is cutting them out of the story; the ball is in their court.

UPDATE: After Dinklage’s comments went viral, Disney responded with a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter:

"To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period."

There’s no release date for the Snow White remake set as of yet.

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h/t Variety