It sounds like a George RR Martin title, but a dearth of dwarves is apparently the situation in The Huntsman, the follow-up to Snow White And The Huntsman. There's no Snow White this time, but there's also a scarcity of the little fellas.
Given that The Huntsman is a prequel, taking place well before Snow White encountered the dwarves in the first place, we might have guessed this anyway. If you're raving about the decision, however, rest assured that at least two of the previous eight (yes, there were eight, rather breaking with Disney tradition) will appear again.
Which two? That's unclear at this stage. Bob Hoskins is sadly no longer with us, while Deadline reports that Nick Frost, Toby Jones and Eddie Marsan are all already out of the running for various reasons. That leaves Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Johnny Harris and Brian Gleeson as the four actors possibly still drawing straws with Universal.
Plot details on The Huntsman remain sketchy. Previous stories pointed to Chris Hemsworth’s hero on a quest to find the stolen magic mirror and going up against both Charlize Theron’s Ravenna and her evil snow queen sister, potentially to be played by Emily Blunt. More recent reports have indicated something about exploring how the Huntsman first met Ravenna, before Snow White (Kristen Stewart, who isn’t likely to return for this one) entered the story. Perhaps it will manage both.
Frank Darabont was set to direct for a while, but recently exited the project citing creative differences, to be replaced by VFX veteran Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. His experience working on the first film should come in particularly useful, since he needs to crack on and have The Huntsman ready for an April 22, 2016 release.