After it was announced a while ago that Scarlett Johansson had signed on as the lead in the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie (here) we figured it was an ok bit of casting. Obvious. But ok.
Seems there’s not a lot of love for it beyond the walls of FTN HQ though…
A fan of the series has launched a petition to stop the Avengers actress from coming on board the manga adaptation and it looks like it’s going to reached its goal of 38,000 very quickly, indeed. The fan, Julie Rodriguez, explains in her petition homepage:
“The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese. So why would the American remake star a white actress? The industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them. One recent survey found that in 2013, Asian characters made up only 4.4% of speaking roles in top-grossing Hollywood films.
“Dreamworks could be using this film to help provide opportunities for Asian-American actors in a market with few opportunities for them to shine — please sign the petition asking them to reconsider casting Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell and select actors who are truer to the cast of the original film!”
We doubt this will have an effect on the April 14th, 2017 release date with Scarlett Johansson in the lead, but power to the people… you never can tell.
You can sign the petition here
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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