Inside the Snow White premiere so woke it had to be held in secret: A remote Spanish castle, no press, just one star and a handful of influencers… while Jewish Gal Gadot is missing

Disney’s Snow White remake has been marred in controversy, and its secret Spanish ‘premiere’ added to the mystery after they failed to roll out the red carpet for global press.

Leading lady Rachel Zegler stepped out at a remote castle in Segrovia, north-west of Madrid, to perform for select ‘VIPs’ after Disney scaled back the event following a series of scandals and PR nightmares surrounding the divisive remake.

Notably, her co-star Gal Gadot – who has also come under the spotlight for her casting as the evil queen – was not in attendance and director Marc Webb was the only other named person involved with the movie who attended.

Though it was one of the first events marking the movie’s March 21 release, it wasn’t described as a premiere, but was carefully referred to as an ‘European event’ after its glitzy global premieres were ditched in favor of ‘tightly controlled’ press events.

Rather than the usual list of major news outlets flocking to the scene, local Spanish influencers and families from the small city of Segovia, which boasts a population of just 51,000, were among the chosen ‘VIPs’ in attendance.

Zegler and Webb, 50, were the only stars who posed for photographs on the modest red carpet with the absence of other cast and crew members very apparent as a crowd gathered outside the castle.

The event – which took place thousands of miles away from the gaze of global press – was made up of a performance of Waiting upon a Wish, with ‘VIPs’ standing in a crowd to watch, and a meal with select guests.

Select guests were given the chance to get a special exclusive screening of the movie itself as influencers gave a glimpse inside the cinema room on social media, though they have to remain mum on their thoughts on the release.

According to Disney, unnamed ‘press’, ‘content creators’ and families involved with local Spanish charities were among those who gathered outside the medieval castle.

But there didn’t appear to be many big names from influencer circles in attendance as the content creators in the crowds boasted mere thousands of followers, rather than millions.

A Spanish Snow White movie fan account, which has 3,735 followers on Instagram, shared photographs and videos from the event as they nabbed one of the very select invites.

Spanish make-up artist Nuria Adraos, who boasts 815,000 followers on Instagram, was also among the guest list, as well Valencia influencer Almu Carrion.

Carrion, who has a reach of 257,000 accounts, described the event as one of the best experiences of her life after she was wined and dined and gifted with freebies as part of the festivities.

TikTok star Liv Marks-Howarth, who describes herself as a celebrity interviewer and has 79,000 TikTok followers and 9,500 on Instagram, posted an array of pictures and videos from the event.

She shared a glimpse inside the formal meal offered as part of the event on Instagram, where guests were served an array of banquet dishes with wine and gifted freebies from Pandora.

The place settings featured bunches of red roses while apples were also laid on the red tablecloth in reference to the storyline of the original fairytale.

Guests were seated at two long candle-lit tables and served a themed red apple dessert among the dishes, while they also had the chance to pose for photographs on a regal silver throne chair afterwards.

Sat on each plate was a free gift from Pandora, a necklace and ring featuring the iconic red apple which the Evil Queen uses to poison Snow White in the classic movie.

Zegler, who plays Snow White, was photographed greeting and signing autographs for the children, who all made up the front row as the leading star took to a simplistic pared-back stage to sing.

Video footage of her performance showed a modest crowd of around 100 people standing behind red rope to watch Zegler, while a small camera crew immortalised the moment on film.

Families involved with charities including Fundación Aladina, Fundación sin daño, Juegaterapia, Pequeño Deseo and CEMU nabbed the prime front row position to watch Zegler’s solo number in a sweet gesture.

A notice revealed that the public have been banned from entering the Alcázar of Segovia on both Wednesday and Thursday as it remains closed for the ‘private event’.

In a further sign that Press have been held away from the event, the date of the premiere was not confirmed on media calendars before it got underway on Wednesday.

Instead, Spanish Zegler fan accounts shared evidence of the premiere coming into town while Zegler herself also documented her arrival on her Instagram Stories.

While the premiere was held away from typical Hollywood-style haunts one would expect for a movie of such grandeur, there was some significance in its choice.

The Alcázar of Segovia was the inspiration behind the castle in Disney’s 1937 original animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with its distinctive shape, turrets and steep roofs all seen in the feature. 

However, amid a series of scandals and PR nightmares surrounding the remake, Disney scaled back the planned lavish premieres to a ‘handful’ of tightly controlled Press events.

Earlier this month, an insider told the Mail: ‘Disney are already anticipating an anti-woke backlash against Snow White and have reduced the media schedule to just a handful of tightly controlled Press events.

‘That is why they have taken the highly unusual step not to host a London premiere for the film and are minimising the amount of Press questions that Rachel Zegler gets.’

Later this week, the cast will return to the States, with Zegler and Gadot expected attend a pre-party and screening at Los Angeles’ El Capitan Theatre on March 15, where ‘coverage will be limited to photographers and a house crew’.

While most premieres invite dozens of media outlets to cover the event and interview the cast, the studio has decided to buck tradition in this case. 

Zegler had attended an event in Tokyo to promote the film last week as she has led the press for the remake, but Gadot and the rest of the cast were not in attendance. 

The scaled-back press tour has not only left fans baffled as Martin Klebba, who voices Grump, has slammed Disney for their decision to scale back the film’s premiere.

Klebba, 55, expressed his disappointment, with TMZ reporting that the actor is ‘seriously bummed and a bit p**sed’ at the situation as he argued it should have got better red carpet treatment.

He argued that Zegler and Gadot’s political opinions should not ‘have overshadowed everyone else’s hard work’.

Zegler has famously expressed pro-Palestine views, while Gadot, in contrast, is a well-known supporter of Israel.

Having starred as Marty in Pirates of the Caribbean, Martin is familiar with big Disney premieres, and argues that Snow White deserves a more significant launch.

Disney’s choice comes following criticism and fears that the remake prioritized ‘woke’ messaging over authentic storytelling. 

Notably, the remake has dumped the traditional romance plot because of ‘sexism’ and reimagined the Seven Dwarfs as a diverse group of ‘magical creatures’.

Zegler herself has also criticized David Hand’s 1937 original animated film as ‘extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman’s fit for in the world’.

‘The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so,’ she told Extra TV in 2022. 

‘There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. So we didn’t do that this time.

‘We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie.’

‘All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby!’ she joked.

About the 1937 film, she added: ‘I was scared of the original version. I think I watched it once and never picked it up again. I’m being so serious.’

Zegler also told Variety that her version of Snow White would be dreaming about becoming a ‘fearless leader’ rather than ‘dreaming about true love’.

‘For Snow White, there’s a famous scene where she falls into a lake, through a trapdoor-type thing in a forest. And we did it, and I got scuba diving training so that I could spend a long time underwater,’ she told Cosmo.

‘You learn how to use a breathing tube. I had this guy named Pete, who is ex-Navy, attached to me at all times, tethered to me. And essentially I spent…I want to say a total of 48 hours training. And then shot for two whole days. It was seven hours underwater.’

Sources previously revealed to DailyMail.com that Zegler’s reputation as a ‘loose cannon’ nearly got her axed from playing Snow White.

Zegler’s strong opinions have prompted some haters to vow to boycott the film.

Reflecting on comments made on social media about her casting as Snow White, Zegler insisted she doesn’t even try to wrap her head why ‘Disney adults’ would have a problem with someone Latina portraying the beloved princess.

Zegler proceeded to reveal that the line describing her character’s ‘skin as white as snow’ will reference ‘another version of Snow White that was told in history,’ in which the character ‘survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby’.

‘The king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience,’ she noted. ‘One of the core points in our film for any young woman or young person is remembering how strong you actually are.’  

The star also admitted that it was ‘sad’ to see so many people rip her apart for teasing that her version of Snow White would not not be saved by a prince.

Disney also sparked backlash after they announced that ‘magical creatures’ would replace the seven dwarves to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes’ after Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage criticized the ‘f****** backwards story’ last year.

‘I was a little taken aback when they [Disney] 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,’ he told Mark Maron’s WTF podcast. 

‘It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f***ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing, man? 

‘Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.’ 

Dinklage’s concerns were shared by some charities, including the Restricted Growth Association in the UK.

‘I very much stand with Peter Dinklage on the disappointment and irritation towards Disney for the remake of Snow White,’ Rhonda Cutmore, a member of the association, told The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, Dwarfism writer Steph Robson said she hoped film producers make an effort to avoid stereotypes in its retelling of the classic movie.

‘It is my hope that the latest live action remake, and Disney, will, at the very least go some way to redress the decades of the one-dimensional stereotypes that our disability continues to experience, especially within arts and cultural settings,’ she told the outlet.

The story has also been criticized as being ableist for portraying the dwarfs with lesser intelligence and Snow White seeing them as children.

Disney later said it’s ‘taking a different approach’ with Snow White’s seven companions.

In a statement last year, the company said it had been consulting with members of the dwarfism community throughout the early stages of production.

‘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,’ a spokesperson said.

‘We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.’

In December last year, sources close to the production said Snow White’s seven ‘dwarfs’ were not going to be fully computer generated, and wouldn’t be dwarfs at all.

Instead, she would be befriended by magical, forest-dwelling creatures.