Paramount bosses have been targeted for casting a white actress in an iconic Japanese role, and now the first image of Johansson in character has been released, the voice of Disney's "Mulan" has offered her thoughts on the controversy.
"Nothing against Scarlett Johansson," she tweeted.
"In fact, I'm a big fan. But everything against this Whitewashing of Asian role."
A critic wrote, "Srsly?? (Seriously) So many grt (great) Asian actresses out there: #LucyLiu would slay this, obviously, but also @MingNa, Arden Cho, Maggie Q, Zhang Ziyi."
The project was made into a cult Japanese anime movie six years later.
In the film, which is set in the near-future, Johansson's character leads a fictional counter-cyberterrorist organisation called Public Security Section 9.
