Michael Clarke Duncan played Kingpin in Daredevil. Laurence Fishburne played Perry White in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Samuel L. Jackson played Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It happens. Nobody cares.

But when Tilda Swinton plays The Ancient One in Doctor Strange, everybody loses their shit and claims whitewashing.

These casting decisions prove that diversity is already in play.

Not sure why I had to go this far back, since Mordo, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is also white in the comics.

You are, however, wrong about Jackson. Nick Fury was modeled after Jackson in the comics back in 2002.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Nick_Fury

Also, when Michael B. Jordan was cast as The Human Torch people sure as hell cared.

I know that about Nick Fury, and I knew you would bring it up. Point is that many people did not know about that, and still nobody seemed to care. Nick Fury is typically a white character to many people that do not read comics but did watch animated television. Still, nobody cared.

Was The Human Torch's casting really grabbing headlines like Swinton is? I really don't think so.

No, but people cared. It was brought up in every single comments section to every single article about the film.

I interviewed Swinton and Derrickson last month and of course the topic came up. Basically they said that it is Ghost in the Shell's fault that the topic was grabbing headlines. That Ghost in the Sheel really should not have cast Johansson in that role and that they were just swept up in that controversy and that there were barely any headlines about this when the initial casting decision was announced.

The case of Ghost in the Shell is stupid. Apparently ScarJo's character in the original was a robot and wasn't even Japanese. I don't know, but it is what I hear.

A robot, yes (and probably still is), but definitely Japanese.

Japanese by birth, I'm sure.