White Leads = Safest Route?

Regarding Johanssen's casting, with so much furor in the Western world, surely the Japanese, where the manga originated, would have already started a mass riot? That doesn't seem to the case, as response in the land of the rising sun suggest that a white casting was inevitable. Scarlett Johanssen is presumably a well-known actress around the globe, no thanks to her stint in the Avengers series, and she's shown her action chops in 2014's Lucy, while she was recently named the highest grossing female actress in US box office history.

Having her in the role not only raises awareness for a Hollywood adaptation, it also helps spread exposure for the Japan property around the globe, which is surely the objectives of these Hollywood executives and the creators themselves. Heck, even Japan did their own form of 'whitewashing' by casting Japanese actors in the Attack on Titan films, despite these characters originally depicted as Westerners in the manga series. Where were the complaints there?

Meanwhile, characters like The Ancient One in the upcoming Doctor Strange was portrayed in the comics as a rather stereotypical Asian character, something which might not sit well with any Asian actor asked to portray him/her/it, more less the very hypocritical audience (as explained by Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige). Besides, Tilda Swinton could only be the best candidate to play a diversely different character, given how she's versatile to play in roles of any form or substance, especially one David Bowie.

Plus, if you're so up on arms about a white woman taking on a Japanese role, why are people campaigning for the likes of Jamie Chung, Maggie Q or Ming-Na Wen, all of them either Chinese/Korean women (but all amazing, and two of them played Mulan), to take up the same role? Having a non-Japanese is equally as offensive as compared to white casting, or is it because said actors are just neither black nor white?

Risk-adverse Studios & the Cost of Advertising

In his explanation, he goes on to state that studios will only bankroll a film of such scale had it cast well-known Hollywood actors, regardless of ethnicity, rather than ethnically-correct performers. While that statement is equally depressing, that is sadly the reality of Hollywood show business. Nevertheless, the casting of Joel Edgerton, and the amount of cosmetic makeup to have him resemble an actual Egyptian (Ramesses II) looks a tad too extreme (where was Rami Malek when we needed him? Oh). 

Still, had Exodus done away with A-listers like Christian Bale, it's highly doubtful that the studio would have sanctioned its hefty $140 million budget, nor would it have earned its still paltry $268 million worldwide box office gross. It would have equally been as unlikely that its distributor (20th Century Fox) would put aside much P&A (Prints & Advertising) had up-and-coming actors, be it from Arabian descent or not, been the main stars of this film. Not every film can rely on the nostalgia factor like Star Wars, while sometimes fanbase alone isn't enough to save a film - Where were the Dredd fans? The Scott Pilgrim aficionados? - and it's not surprising to see studios taking taking the conservative route.

Lackin' Opportunities

The problem lies in that while non-white actors are still getting the rough end when it comes snagging film roles, their depiction in American media is still a long way from not being stereotyped into oblivion. Brenda Song was ridiculed for playing a bimbo schoolgirl on the short-lived Fox series Dads, Rob Schneider portrayed an offensive Asian caricature in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, while Ashton Kutcher went brown-face for a food commercial. The issue of Emma Stone's part-Chinese character is an oddity however. All this outage could've been avoided by either casting an actor that fits the bill, or don't include/disclose the ethnicity in their respective character description. Unless... this whole fiasco was a ploy by Cameron Crowe to garner word of mouth for the film, which if true, ultimately failed.

Even ethnically diverse films play to its own stereotypes. While Fresh Off the Boat (a sitcom I really enjoy) and Dr. Ken (a sitcom I can't bring myself to watch) seemed to have bucked the trend by being the first Asian American-led TV show in two decades, much of the episodes on both shows seem centered on themes which only the Asian community can relate too (both are never far from the parents/obedience cliche), which limits these shows' potential audience reach beyond its target demographic. Don't get me started on Tyler Perry's Madea films either. While Hollywood are taking very few chances with casting non-whites, the latter's chances to break out are still limited to more race-based programs.

It's difficult to expect a similar renaissance in the film business for the time being, as Hollywood has a tiring knack of giving chance after chance to certain white actors despite continuous flops, with Taylor Kitsch coming to mind for his 2012 triple threat flop, or Sam Worthington for his post Avatar career slide. The most prominent Asian actor at the moment, from what I can think of the top of my head, is Korean-American actor John Cho, of #StarringJohnCho fame. The upcoming Star Trek Beyond is actually his second crack at a trilogy, having been the lead of three Harold & Kumar films alongside Indian-American actor Karl Penn. Though he was the lead in the latter, he's largely a supporting (though equally important as a group) character in the long-running space opera as Hikaru Sulu, in a role previously played by George Takei, which brings me to the following point...

Value-Added Additions 

Apart from the seasoned duo of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, who are literally the faces of the franchise, we have Tyrese, Ludcris, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang and the almighty Dwayne Johnson. The series as a whole has grossed an eye-popping $4 billion worldwide, but it's largely due to the one-two punch of Diesel and Walker (and to some extent The Rock as well) that helped put butts into the cinemas, serving as the glue that sticks everyone together, however replaceable the supporting cast may be.

With the rise of the China economic and its cinema as well, no thanks to the resulting heightened spending power, Asians have made a leeway into Hollywood franchises... but in a way that feels shoehorned into. The likes of Li BingBing in Transformers and Angelababy in the recent Independence Day Resurgence have very little to do in their respective films, but they get the same sort of advertising as the main stars, all in quest to earn that sweet China box office pie. The jury's still out for Donnie Yen's part in Rogue One, but the recent influx of international stars in small roles will not diminish the viewpoint that Asian actors merely function as value-added pawns in a big budget film.

The road to ending the racial dilemma in Hollywood can only be completed from both ends. Similar as to how race shouldn't be a deciding role in assigning roles (a black actor should have a chance at a role meant for a white actor), roles originally based around foreign media, ethically-foreign characters in mind, shouldn't be limited to performers of the same race. This isn't to squash the lingering problem in show business that the chances for non-white actors to compete in Hollywood are marginalized. However, when women in Ghostbusters is still riling up some quarters, the problem of non-white actors headlining blockbuster films is barely on everyone's conscience at the moment.

Thus, the first big step in coercing studios into giving equal chances to the ethnic minority can only begin by ending the stigma of stereotyping. That means looking ahead to the bright future of cinema, instead of always looking back at Hollywood's failed misrepresentations. Forget Marlon Brando in Sayonara, forget Mickey Rooney in Tiffany's, actors must show that they have the chops to lead on screen, be it in a massive film franchise or a TV mini-series, to show the bigwigs that the likes of Constance Wu and Benedict Wong can lead a show with a widespread audience in mind.

Also, when studios are not giving chances to these actors, but still plowing money to Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison crew, you know there's a stinking problem right there. I'm quite certain that a Ghostbusters sequel/reboot starring Sandler and his merry crew would still receive less hate than Paul Feig's recent effort, which is a bigger shame in itself.