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Scarlett Johansson's Latest Role In 'Ghost In The Shell' Labelled ‘Whitewash'

Really Hollywood, again?

Really Hollywood, again?

Scarlett Johansson is set to play a Japanese character in an adaptation of artist Masamune Shirow’s popular manga series Ghost in the Shell.

The announcement (and photo) of the 31-year-old's latest role (which is set to debut in April 2017), is causing debate among Twitter users online and being labelled "whitewash."

As one Twitter user and filmmaker Jimmy Wong pointed out, the full whitewashing of the movie is "BS."

"'Ghost in the Shell' was one of the most important movies to my brother and me growing up. It really does hurt to see it get this treatment," he wrote on the social media page.

According to Cartoon Brew, in response to the news, manga lovers across the web are even tweeting photos of Asian women who they thought would play the role of Motoko Kusanagi.

Other users, including writer Ranier Maningding of The Love Life Of An Asian Guy on Facebook is simply fed up.

'Ghost In The Shell', directed by Rupert Sanders (behind films like Snow White and the Huntsman), was also released in 1995 as an anime science fiction movie.

The white-washing of Asian characters is nothing new, especially not in the last few years. Emma Stone and the people behind "Aloha" were called out in July 2015 for casting Stone as an Asian-American woman, and in "The Martian," director Ridley Scott was grilled for casting white actress MacKenzie Davis as Mindy Park — a Korean-American scientist in the original book.

And it's not just Asian roles — as Complex magazine points out, Hollywood has a long history of casting white actors and actresses for non-white roles.

Watch the video above to see what other Twitter users have to say about ScarJo's role.

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