Scarlett Johansson Faces Widespread Criticism For Playing Snail Love Interest in Turbo 2: “She’s Not a Snail”

The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Snailfina in the DreamWorks animated film Turbo 2 has drawn accusations of “humanwashing” and sparked fierce debate on social media.

The movie’s D-plot follows Snailfina’s journey of self-acceptance—once bullied for her disgusting, slimy body, Snailfina learns to love herself and discovers that true beauty lies within. Scarlett Johansson, on the other hand, has won Esquire Magazine’s Sexiest Woman Alive twice. This dissonance has left moviegoers unsure if Johansson could do justice to the nuanced and specific tribulations facing Snailfina: “It would be like casting Brad Pitt as Auggie in Wonder,” one commenter writes.

Members of the production team have done their best to quell the vitriol. “At final callback, it was between Scarlett and four snails,” director David Soren said in an interview. “But even the top names in snail media lack the name recognition that Scarlett has. Like, have you heard of Snailiana Jones? Yeah, right. And she won two Snail Oscars.”

The release of the first trailer for Turbo 2 only intensified the controversy. It was revealed that Snailfina’s full name is Snailfina Zhang, meaning Johansson didn’t just take the role of a snail, but an Asian American snail. Overall, Dreamworks is expecting a major blow at the Box Office as Snail Advocates as well as Asian-American Activists have teamed up to launch a major boycott on the movie.

A Harvard Lampoon parody