I just watched The Wolverine again last weekend and more than ever it's clear who my favorite part of the film was, and it wasn't Hugh Jackman. It was actually Rila Fukushima, who played a totally badass precog J-Pop version of Yukio, one of my favorite characters from the Wolverine comics. So it makes me happy to learn that Fukushima is now joining Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell.
Is her casting a response to all of the white washing claims the film has been hit with? Maybe, maybe not. Ultimately it doesn't matter because she's in the cast and that's what counts. She joins Johansson, Pilou Asbaek, Juliette Binoche, Beat Takeshi Kitano, and Michael Pitt in the adaptation of Masamune Shirow's classic manga about a cyborg cop who is part of an elite counterterrorism unit tasked with stopping cyber-crime.
While her role is unclear we can assume Fukushima will have a chance to show off her action chops. Not only was she great in The Wolverine, but she played Katana in CW's Arrow. Ghost in the Shell opens April 14th 2017 directed by Rupert Sanders. [THR]
