Writer Max Landis Talks Scarlett Johansson Whitewashing Controversy on 'Ghost in the Shell'

When Scarlett Johansson was cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, there was a roar of indignation over hiring a white woman in an Asian role, and the controversy sparked up again when the first photo of Johansson in the role was released. Now, filmmaker and screenwriter Max Landis has just shared his two cents on the whitewashing controversy.

Landis, whose projects include writing last year's Victor Frankenstein and the upcoming Power Rangers reboot movie, recently took to his YouTube channel, UpToMyKnees, to talk about his stand regarding Johansson playing the role. During a 5-and-a-half minute clip, Landis joined the debate regarding the (white) Avengers actress playing a role written for an Asian -- and he's not at all happy about Johansson's casting.

"There are no A-list female Asian celebrities right now on an international level. It's infuriating," Landis says on the video, entitled "If You're Mad About Ghost In The Shell You Don't Know How The Movie Industry Works". "It's infuriating. There used to be, in the 90s, diversity in our A-list actors. Jackie Chan and Jet Li were famous at the same time, they could both get movies made. We don't have that guy anymore, we don't even have Lucy Liu anymore."

Many have protested Johansson's casting in the role, including her fellow Marvel actress Ming-Na Wen, who recently took to Twitter to express her disappointment at the move.

According to The Guardian, there were also rumors that Johansson's face was going to be altered in post-production to make her look more "Asian," but Paramount denied this was a plan.

In the past few years, Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi has been the best-known young female Asian face in Western cinema. Besides her Oscar-nominated turn in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, Kikuchi also starred in Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim and the Keanu Reeves-led 47 Ronin -- and as Mashable reports, she has been deemed the fan favorite to take on the role of Motoko Kusanagi.

A photo posted by Greg Morrison (@thatgingerbrit) on Apr 14 2016 at 11:09 PDT

The controversial Ghost in the Shell live-action movie will hit theaters on April 14, 2017.