[19][10] In January 2018, director Steven Spielberg posted an open casting call via Twitter for a new film adaptation of West Side Story.

[24][25][26] For her performance, she received a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Young Performer and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy,[27][28] making her the first actress of Colombian descent to win in that category as well as the youngest winner in that category at 20 years old.

[33] David Ehrlich of IndieWire praised Zegler writing, "[She] is absolutely captivating in a Wild Rose-coded performance that’s equal part Southern pluck and wide-eyed terror...it is a marvel of multiplex acting".

[34] In October 2023, Zegler announced her exit from Paddington in Peru, attributing her departure to the SAG strike.

The third installment of Paddington was filmed with actress Carla Tous replacing her role as Gina Cabot.

[40] She will voice the lead character in the animated musical film Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson, which is scheduled to premiere on Netflix.

[41][42] She will also play the titular character in Snow White, a live-action adaptation the 1937 animated Disney film, scheduled to be released in 2025.

[47] She was part of the in memoriam segment of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in honour of Stephen Sondheim, alongside Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, and Leslie Odom Jr.[48] She was initially not invited to attend the 94th Academy Awards ceremony of 2022 to support her colleagues involved in West Side Story, which received seven nominations, including Best Picture.

The two had met on the set of West Side Story and later starred in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes together.

In October 2023, she became a member of Artists4Ceasefire and signed their letter urging Joe Biden to facilitate a ceasefire to end Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

In a January 2024 Instagram story, she urged her followers to pressure their government leaders to support a ceasefire in Gaza.