Disney has responded to Peter Dinklage's criticisms of the upcoming live-action Snow White remake, with the company issuing a statement saying it will "avoid reinforcing stereotypes" depicted in the original movie.
Appearing on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, the Game of Thrones actor had lambasted the decision to make a new version of Snow White.
"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," he said. "Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me."
A spokesperson for Disney has since released a statement saying that the filmmakers have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community during its lengthy pre-production period.
The statement, issued to The Hollywood Reporter, reads: "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."
Dinklage had previously pointed out that, while Disney made strides in casting West Side Story's Rachel Zegler as the lead, it was still telling a "fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together".
He continued: "What the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? 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 added that the project shouldn't necessarily be scrapped in its entirety. "If you tell the story of Snow White with the most fucked up, cool, or progressive spin on it? Let's do it. All in."
The live-action Snow White film will star Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, while The Good Fight's Andrew Burnap has been tapped to play the male lead. Meanwhile, Dinklage can be seen in his latest film Cyrano.
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