Can Snow White Learn From Wicked‘s Success?

Wicked reignited audience interest in fantasy live-action adaptations, after years of malaise, and Snow White has the chance to be propelled by that same energy. The new musical take from Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) on the fairy tale that built Walt Disney animation as we know it will be the first live-action reimagining of the year among a surprisingly busy slate for the field, including DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon and another Disney release, Lilo & Stitch.

Jon M. Chu’s cinematic musical triumph brought back interest in fantasy adaptations in a real way by leaning into its roots wholeheartedly. It created an Oz with grand, lived-in sets; attempted to make CG backgrounds and staging as unobtrusive to the audience as possible; and of course played into the electric chemistry of its powerhouse leads. There was definite magic in its success, and Wicked: For Good will hope to replicate that later this year.

It’s the sort of magic that we’d expect from Disney, but it’s something the studio has had trouble distilling from its own classic fairytales in its live-action remakes, which have proven divisive among audiences and critics. Over the years there have been concerns that the first few relied too heavily on green screen and withheld singing early on, particularly Cinderella (with cut songs performed by Lily James) and Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty’s de facto adaptation, a villain retelling which aped Wicked). When Beauty and the Beast came along, Emma Watson looked and acted the part of Belle, but the illusion fell apart when what sounded like auto-tune karaoke came out of her mouth for some of the greatest Disney songs ever written.

In retrospect, it’s surprising future Wicked star Ariana Grande was seemingly not considered for Belle, though the film’s 2017 release came before we knew the singer’s aspirations to lean back into acting. It doesn’t all fall on Watson’s voice, however; while she embodied Belle’s archetype perfectly, the CG work around her was more of an issue. The ensemble looked like nightmare dead-eyed versions of the household objects they’re inspired by more than the characters we knew and loved. And don’t get me started on how dirty they did Dan Stevens with that atrocious Beast design, which could have been an incredible opportunity to showcase creature makeup effects and his talent.

So it’s no wonder that by the time Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin came along and we got the first look at Will Smith as the Genie it turned off audiences. Thankfully he didn’t look that way for most of the film and led a very solid cast in Ritchie’s more good than bad musical adaptation of the Disney hit. One of the film’s biggest revelations was Naomi Scott’s Jasmine, who was the first princess in a live-action adaptation to get everything right—she had the voice and acting chops (if you don’t believe us, watch Smile 2). Even her new song, “Speechless,” composed by Alan Menken with songwriting duo Pasek and Paul (who are back for Snow White), suited her character’s motivations to be more than a princess. It’s such an underrated piece and paid off in the end with her essentially becoming Sultan with Aladdin as her regent.

With The Little Mermaid, Disney scored another casting win with Halle Bailey’s Ariel. Like Scott, Bailey is an incredible singer and actress who exemplifies why these heroines are so beloved. Bailey’s Ariel broke so much ground and you could say she paved the way for Elphaba; unfortunately, she also angered trolls and outright racists who took issue with the casting of young Black woman as a mythical mermaid. The Little Mermaid wasn’t a flop, but it fell short of the success found by Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. Any blame for that should be placed squarely on the film’s visual choices first and foremost—relying too much on just plain freaky-looking computer-generated animation that failed to elevate Ursula’s body language while also giving us wonky sidekicks, particularly Sebastian, who was sorely lacking his presence from the animated film.

Fortunately, fantasy adaptations haven’t drowned in the deep just yet. Chu’s take on Wicked was able to extract the core of L. Frank Baum’s fairy tale novel, reimagine the enchantment of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, and give Broadway’s own adaptive spin on Gregory Maguire’s radical novel a widely accepted new canon. That’s exactly the sort of achievement Disney Princess fans want and hope from Snow White and any future live-action adaptations. From the moment Rachel Zegler began to sing in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, her casting as Snow White made perfect sense. The trailers live and die on her musical talent, while the film’s aesthetic and character design choices appear to be strikingly similar to the animated film. (One big point of contention has been the choice to make the dwarves essentially CG versions of their animated characters; it’s been speculated that Disney moved away from casting actors at the behest of Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage urging the studio on a podcast to not typecast people with types of dwarfism.)

It will be interesting to see if these upcoming live-action adaptations have something new to say about the classics for this generation of genre fans, rather than seemingly just being assembly-line produced to make a buck out of their beloved brands. Wicked offered up fresh perspectives with the backdrop of the Emerald City which made audiences fall in love with its world all over again. And yes, that gave Universal a new franchise to capitalize on with merchandise in high demand and the hopes for theme park immersion. Just this week Universal announced that fans will be able to meet Elphaba and Glinda in its theme parks, much like how fans can meet Disney Princesses at Disney Parks. There was no comparable option, unless you count Princess Peach and Princess Fiona, until now.

The way Wicked made fairytale core and whimsical witchy core exciting again with tie-in fashion, accessories, and makeup is a moment we’re still wanting more of because of how the movie presented these new figures to look up to. That’s how it should be, not the other way around, in order to keep an appetite for these reimagined classics. They made me want to own pieces inspired by Elphaba and Glinda as relatable characters; it’s why I own an obnoxious amount of things that say “Defy Gravity” on them. I hope Snow White’s collections have their own story to tell and identify with. As a Latina and mom to a half-Latina baby I’m ecstatic about seeing Zegler play Snow White… but I’m also worried.

The way Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo got to make their dreams come true playing Glinda and Elphaba, I want that for Zegler—and while we’re at it, Halle Bailey too, since both performers have experienced weird bigotry for taking ownership of their characters. They’re the ones Disney crowned, not random hags and trolls of the internet. Zegler recently shared with Vogue Mexico that she simply believes that Snow White should be “the leader who knows who she can be,” giving her multitudes outside of her relationship with the prince. “It’s very important that audiences know Disney has found a beautiful and delicate balance with the classic animated film the whole world knows and loves from 1937, and at the same time represents a new generation,” Zegler said.

So it was really weird that her few words on the film, which included jokingly comparing the original prince to a “stalker” and expressing relief that her take on the princess had more agency, was widely treated as if she made the calls when she was operating under the direction set forth by Marc Webb and Disney. Erivo, who spoke out about the importance of her Elphaba casting as a Black queer woman—breaking the outdated Wicked Witch stereotype from the book and original film to drown out the haters, and embodying the character for a new generation—was greatly supported by her director and studio. Zegler should be able to allow herself the joy of being a Latina Snow White with the agency to represent something evolved from the core of the classic Snow White and just as protected as our new princess.

She continued to express what Snow means to her in her Vogue piece: “Her superpower is her heart, Snow White doesn’t posses any supernatural power. That’s more powerful than her love for humanity, for all living creatures and her fundamental belief that there’s goodness in everything—that’s something I really think the world needs more of.”

She’s since made peace with the backlash she received, seeing it as fans just being “passionate [for the film], and what an honor to be a part of something people have so much passion for. We’re not always going to share the same feelings as those around us so all we can do is give the best of ourselves.”

And we agree, Snow White should be allowed to reinterpret the character’s journey in the same aspirational ways which propelled Wicked’s success. So please, please, Disney—don’t prove the naysayers right and let us bite into a poison apple.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.