imo it’s not enough to say “stop whitewashing asian roles” it’s also important to say stop fucking plucking stories out of their eastern origins and repackaging and recontextualizing them for a western audience for money, period. this ghost in the shell movie isn’t just going to be shit because white people are playing the leads, it’s also going to be shit because the script and adaptation and production were all overseen by what i’m sure are overwhelmingly white american filmmakers. the REASON these films are so white is because they want them to feel white, western, etc. and sadly, i think you could pluck out all the leads from this movie and replace them with asian actors and you’d only be fixing the most visible part of the problem.
I think it largely depends on context. Unless the story heavily relies on an Asian setting, adapting it to new audiences...