Waititi isn’t officially directing any Akira movie yet, but he was able to share some parts of his vision with IGN and that vision involves keeping the film tied to its Japanese roots.
It might seem strange that Taika Waititi answered a question about casting with “Asian teenagers,” but it really isn’t.
As far as star power goes, he sounds like he’s looking for relatively unknown actors or at least ones who haven’t exploded into the mainstream just yet.
As people have begun to take more notice, the backlash over these decisions has gotten much stronger.