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Disney Accused of Rigging Awards Show to Promote ‘Snow White’

Disney rigged People's Choice Awards for Rachel Zegler
Credit: Disney/Rachel Zegler

It’s no secret that Disney’s live-action remakes have become quite the source of controversy in recent years. The firestorm appeared to peak when Disney cast black actress Halle Bailey to play Ariel in its live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. However, another live-action is also drumming up a lot of drama. That would be the upcoming film, Snow White.

Snow White will star Rachel Zegler as the titular princess, Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and Andrew Burnap as Jonathan (AKA The Prince).

snow white and prince florian first meeting

Credit: Disney

Related: Rachel Zegler Shares More Details About Disney’s “Woke” Snow White

While remakes are already contentious, things have not been easy for Disney, mainly because of Rachel Zegler. The actress has been very open about Disney creating a more updated story. She has criticized the old film, saying that Snow White had no story, other than waiting for a prince. She also said that the Prince didn’t even need to be in the story, going so far as to call him a “stalker”.

Snow white live action

Credit: Disney

Report: Report: Disney Attempts to “Fix” Snow White Amid Rachel Zegler Backlash

Fans have not taken kindly to Zegler and her comments. And they have not been quiet about letting Disney know how upset they are about the entire situation. They have also demanded that Disney replace Zegler and reshoot the movie with a new actress in the lead role. Zegler, for her part, has apologized to fans, saying that she is grateful that Disney gave her the chance to play such an iconic princess. She has also toned down the negative rhetoric around the original story.

rachel zegler hunger games songbirds and snakes

Credit: Lions Gate Studios

Recently, Zegler made headlines, but not for any criticism she had about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Instead, it was because she had won Action Movie Star of the Year at the People’s Choice Awards. Fans of Zegler were thrilled, but others were surprised. Zegler was up against actors like Tom Cruise for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning and Keanu Reeves for John Wick: Chapter 4.

One person thinks that they know the exact reason why Zegler won the award for her role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It was because Disney rigged the voting.

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning

Credit: Paramount

Critic Valliant Renegade released a video, claiming that Disney rigged the awards so that Zegler could get some positive press. He said that Disney had dropped a lot on Snow White, and they need some good things to happen, so the movie isn’t a total flop.

If you were the Walt Disney Company and you had already spent 200 some odd million dollars filming Snow White, a live-action remake of it starring Rachel Zegler, who then stuck her foot in her mouth and effectively sank the production to the point that Disney had to pull it off of the release shelf and move it back one entire year for massive reshoots because they had to fix the things that audiences immediately and reflexively gagged at. Well, you might just want to raise the specter and the public sentiment of its principal character Rachel Zegler playing Snow White as much as you possibly could.”

Related: Snow White Star Rachel Zegler’s Latest Win Has People Up in Arms!

He also pointed out the way that voting worked for the People’s Choice Awards. Fans can vote for their pick once per day. However, one Tuesday before the show, the votes counted twice. So, he accused Disney of getting people to vote as much as they could, even creating fake accounts to add votes.

Now, it is important to point out some things. Valliant Renegade pointed out the audience at the awards show — young women in their early twenties. So, women like Zegler.

Rachel Zegler The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Credit: Lionsgate

Related: Snow White Rachel Zegler Addresses Being In the Public Eye

He then seemed a little bit confused as to why the young women that he thinks make up the voting pool would vote for a woman like them, and not an attractive man like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves. It is also important to note that, if the voting block is mainly young women, they would be more likely to see The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes over Mission Impossible or John Wick.

Fake Seven Dwarfs

Credit: Click News & Media

He also said that Disney had to reshoot a lot of the movie because people weren’t happy with what they saw and with what Zegler said. He then used an image that went viral of a group of “dwarfs”. But that image was not one that was from Disney’s live-action remake. When the image was released, Disney quickly put out a statement that the image was fake and not from them.

Zegler was clearly thrilled when she won the award. During her speech, she said that she always felt like an outsider in Hollywood. However, winning the award showed her that she did not need to change to fit in.

What do you think about Rachel Zegler’s win at The People’s Choice Awards? Let us know in the comments. 

About Krysten Swensen

A born and bred New England girl living the Disney life in Southern California. I love to read, to watch The Golden Girls, and love everything to do with Disney and Universal. I also love to share daily doses of Disney on my Disney Instagram @BrazzleDazzleDisney!

2 comments

  1. They should replace Rachel Zegler and re-shoot her scenes. It shouldn’t take a genius or an overpaid 30 million per year CEO to figure that out.