Arrow and Wolverine star joins Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell movie

It may have come under fire because of the casting of Scarlett Johansson as its lead, but the news that Rila Fukushima joins Ghost in the Shell cast adds an interesting new twist to the live action adaptation of the manga classic, write our guys over at Squareeyed.tv.

The news was broken by The Hollywood Reporter, as Fukushima joins a cast that has been gaining serious momentum as of late; Takeshi Kitano will play Johansson’s boss, alongside other names such as Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones’ Euron Greyjoy, who has also appeared alongside Johansson before in Lucy), Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt, Chin Han, Kaori Momoi, Yukata Izumihara and Joseph Naufahu.

The project is really gathering steam despite the casting of Johansson to play a character that was originally Asian initially leading to fan backlash. Tempers seem to have calmed a bit, and what we’re hearing about the latest additions to the cast give us a lot of hope.

Fukushima, who previously starred alongside Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine, is the latest addition to Dreamwork’s adaptation. We’d imagine she’ll be doing plenty of face punching as the film progresses, as she’s no stranger to that; as well as appearing in Marvel’s X-Men spinoff, she has also been on the other side of the fence, in DC’s Arrow series as Katana.

Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is directing the action-packed project, which sees Johansson star as Major Kusanagi, a badass special ops cyborg who heads up the elite task force Section 9. The team works under the umbrella of Hanka Robotics, who have the team on the hunt for The Laughing Man, a terrorist on a mission to destroy all of Hanka’s technology, including the Major.

Ghost In The Shell activates into cinemas on the 31 March 2017.