Scarlett Johansson is playing the lead role in Ghost in The Shell. She plays Major Motoko Kusanagi, and since the announcement, people have criticized the studio for casting a white lady to play a Japanese character.


So much so that they've set aside Japanese actors who could have nailed the lead role.


Based on a 1989 manga set in the year 2029, it's got a huge cult following.


Hollywood has been obsessed with the film for years. All modern science fiction movies in some way take cues from Ghost In The Shell.

 

The Wachowski siblings apparently played Ghost In The Shell while pitching for The Matrix. And they made something of that sort..


When everyone saw Scarlett as Major Kusanagi, the comments started coming in.


They weren't great.


Furious, more like it.



Then finally, to add salt to the injury, ScreenCrush revealed that producers experimented with using CGI to make Johansson "appear Asian."

Paramount fired back and said, “A test was done related to a specific scene for a background actor which was ultimately discarded. Absolutely no visual effects tests were conducted on Scarlett’s character and we have no future plans to do so.”


So...that's why...