Grumpy will appear in the upcoming live-action Snow White played by Pirates of the Caribbean star Martin Klebba. The actor confirmed the casting news in a video filmed at Denver's Fan Expo (H/T ComicBook.com).
"Just got done filming Snow White, which will be coming out late next year. And of course, I play Grumpy, and Gal Gadot is our witch, and Rachel Zegler will be our Snow White," he said in the clip.
The casting news comes after Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage expressed his thoughts on including the dwarfs in the film earlier in the year. "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 commented. "Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me."
He added: "You're progressive in one way, but then you're still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, 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?"
But Disney responded to the actor's comments, indicating the studio has taken care to portray the characters sensitively. "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," Disney said in a statement. "We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period."
West Side Story star Rachel Zegler will play Snow White herself, while Gal Gadot is the Evil Queen. Andrew Burnap will play the male lead in the film – though not the prince or the huntsman, but instead an all-new original character. There's no word on who will be playing the other six dwarfs just yet, though it's safe to assume they'll be included.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs doesn't yet have a release date. While you wait, check out our roundup of all the new Disney movies on the way.
