'Hellboy' casting prompts backlash over 'whitewashing' [Japanese character, Brit actor]

Associated Press ^ | Aug 23, 2017 4:03 PM EDT | Jake Coyle

[Olog-hai]

A Hollywood film yet again finds itself responding to a social-media outcry over the casting of a white actor in a role that was originally Asian-American.

British actor Ed Skrein earlier this week joined the cast of the “Hellboy” reboot “Rise of the Blood Queen,” which is to be the third film in the comic adaptation franchise previously helmed by Guillermo del Toro. The character, Ben Daimio, is Japanese-American in Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy” comics and his heritage is central to his backstory. Daimio’s grandmother was a Japanese Imperial assassin in World War II.

Many objected to the role not going to an Asian-American actor and called it another example of Hollywood “whitewashing” Asian characters. “I guess they want this to fail,” said actress Cindy Chu on Twitter. …

[The Grammarian]

Same reason I will never see the live-action Ghost In The Shell. Scarlett Johannsen makes a terrible Japanese cyborg.

[hattend]

John Wayne was Genghis Khan as well.

[a fool in paradise]

Hellboy should be portrayed by a demon.