'Ghost In The Shell' Live Movie Release Date & News: Fans Want Scarlett Johansson Out

Fans of "Ghost In the Shell" are petitioning against Scarlett Johansson's casting as Motoko Kusanagi in DreamWorks Pictures' live action adaptation.

The Care2 petition has now reached over 36,000 signatures since its launch. According to petition author Julie Rodriguez, the production company should "stop whitewashing characters."

She wrote: "The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese. So why would the American remake star a white actress? The industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them. One recent survey found that in 2013, Asian characters made up only 4.4% of speaking roles in top-grossing Hollywood films."

For those unacquainted with the character, Motoko Kusanagi is "a member of a covert counter cyber-terrorist organization, which specializes in fighting technology-related crime in mid-21st century Japan." The Japanese manga was created by Masamune Shirow and started initial production in 1989, Entertainment Weekly reports.

This is not the first time that a Hollywood adaptation of a manga was criticized for casting non-Japanese actors, an example of which is the live action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira," according to a report from Forbes.

Another controversy is M. Night Shyamalan's big screen adaptation of the Nickelodeon series "Avatar: The Last Airbender." The flick received disapproval from fans as well as creators because "it cast non-Asian actors in all of the primary protagonist roles," Comic Book Resources reports.

The petition's author also added that this could be DreamWorks' chance to provide diversity in the film industry. She stated, "DreamWorks could be using this film to help provide opportunities for Asian-American actors in a market with few opportunities for them to shine -- please sign the petition asking them to reconsider casting Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell and select actors who are truer to the cast of the original film!"

Participants of the petition are also naming actresses they want for the Motoko Kusanagi role. One of the most prominent choices is "Pacific Rim" star Rinko Kikuchi, Latin Times notes.

Rupert Sanders ("Snow White and the Huntsman") will direct "Ghost in the Shell," with Bill Wheeler penning the script, Entertainment Weekly adds. Avi Arad and Steven Paul will serve as producers, while Mark Sourian will executive produce. DreamWorks' principal partner Steven Spielberg has long expressed interest on steering the manga to the big screen, Variety reports.

"Ghost In the Shell" is slated for release in theaters on April 17, 2017, Comic Book Resources notes. Johansson can next be seen as Black Widow in the upcoming Marvel flick "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" in May.