To the folks who aren't bothered by whitewashing...

I don't like this term of "washing", but either way, to me it's only a problem with you cast a certain (usually main) character in a way that doesn't fit the source material, or try to justify in some silly political way. And that's the crux of the problem, imo. That people try to push for racial recasts not because they feel a certain person is better for the role, but just "because". And does this issue ever come up in any other country's movie industry?

Even though I like casting to stick as closely as possible to the original, if it doesn't hurt the plot then I can only shrug at it.
There's also the component of being a fan of the original material. When you really like something the way it is, you want it preserved that way.

In the case of Ghost in the Shell, I didn't mind ScarJo's casting because Major has a synthetic body. It can be anything.
I would've preferred a taller actress though, since Scarlett ends up looking kinda stocky to me.
My bottom line for this movie - didn't see a point in having it remade. The anime film is great and still holds up, imo.
I'm not a fan of live action adaptions of animations in general.

Rue - I've never read the books but she was a minor character and it didn't affect the plot, so who cares?
Same with Heimdall. I haven't read any of the comics. Idris Elba did a great job.

When you ask to change an established and iconic character like James Bond, you rattle its whole history.
If you choose to go with "agent 007" being a title rather than an individual person, I don't personally see the problem.
I think people just really like to keep the characters they like the way they were. I also think that if you wanna reboot, just do it under a new name and create a new character.

Some examples of my own (that I can think of right now)-

Hermoine in the musical - she was my favorite in the book series, but it's fine with me if they wanna cast a black actress. The point of contention here was J.K Rowling claiming Hermoine was black all along, which is clearly false, pointless and silly of her to do.

The Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 - I didn't see a problem with the casting, personally. He's a good actor and he fit with the other kids just fine. I don't remember if there was much buzz about it. To me it was more of an "oh, they're doing it again lol".

Jimmy Olsen in the Supergirl reboot - this one I did mind. Not because he's a black guy, but because he's a super buff, hot guy. It just doesn't fit with the way the original character was (a small, nerdy ginger).

I believe "*washing" in some contexts is OK, or even beneficial. I see nothing wrong with taking show or movie from another country, and re-localizing it for the purpose of making the characters/story more relatable for the target audience. In these cases, it's generally assumed that most of the target audience hasn't seen or heard of the source material before; or it isn't palatable for the target audience because of language barriers and things like that.

*washing where actors are portrayed as a race that is not their own is a little bit offensive. But, I don't think this is done very much anymore.

In some cases, I find *washing in remakes, such as Annie and Karate Kid, too forced, and cheesy.

In the case of this movie, I think their target audience were Americans who have never seen the original anime. BUT, because they didn't re-localize the setting, or offer some kind of explanation for the apparent western invasion of Japan, it was a bit confusing, and not very effective.

I'm not bothered by either direction. I think the only time it really matters is when a real, known person is being portrayed onscreen (this includes stuff like the Egyptians/Moses being played by a bunch of white people). Then it works best to pick an actor the same race, age and gender, not to mention resembling the actual person.

However, it still doesn't "bother" me, ever. I barely even notice.

I think a different color Bond would be great. Hell, I think a female Bond would be great. Thor/Hemsworth would make a better Bond love interest than his role as the eye-candy secretary in Ghostbusters.

=)

i'm not offended by any race/color/creed whatever, and don't care about white washing: whoever makes the movie, make it however you want.

BUT, I, personally, am not a fan of color or gender swapping on known characters. Not AGAINST any race or anything, it just makes no logical sense to me: SuperMan was a white guy in the original comic, so that is what/who is should always be. making superman into a black or latino woman justt seems stupid and cash grabby to me. Not following super hero characters enough to know who is trading where, so I don't care about that either. BUT, if I was a fan of character "X" and they changed the race or gender, well, that would seem silly and stupid to me.

So, white washing, I don't care. Would I have rather seen proper race in GITS live remake? Sure, but maybe that movie would have gotten made due to lack of funding without a very well known actress in it. I didn't see it for Scarlett, I saw it for the plot, but I bet many DID see it for Scarlett.

Making the ghosts busters all women... why, again?? Will NEVER see that mess.

Interestingly, Japanese audiences and the Japanese creators of the manga and anime did not even notice the "whitewashed" casting, as they have no equivalent to divisive American racial politics.

I hate how Tom Sawyer tricked people into whitewashing. He's a sly one!

I'm Asian-American, and here's my take: I saw the film the night it opened, and very much enjoyed it. Scarjo did a good job. As for her appearance - I would've cast a taller, more menacing-looking actress, like Mackenzie Davis (who is now BUFF). I don't care if she's white since I've always thought anime characters look Caucasian.

As for other types of "washing," I've no desire to see a brown James Bond nor a brown Captain America. And I think all Asgardians should be white, for the same reason all Wakandans should be black. Seeing black and Asian characters in Asgard didn't sit well with me.

The deception is the various shades of grey,