The director of the original Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii, has weighed in on the whitewashing controversy surrounding the remake, saying that there is no basis for the criticism leveled at the decision to cast Scarlett Johansson in the lead role rather than an Asian actor.
The argument continued when the screenwriter Max Landis suggested there were no actors of east Asian origins capable of getting Ghost in the Shell green-lit in 2016.
I believe having Scarlett play Motoko was the best possible casting for this movie.
“In the movies, John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, and Omar Sharif, an Arab, can play Doctor Zhivago, a Slav.