Thor: Ragnarok's director Taika Watiti says that the live action adaptation of Anime classic Akira may still move forward, and he has made assurances that he will avoid whitewashing, but would still try to do a different interpretation to the film.

In an interview with Dazed, Waititi said  "What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ’cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through." and he added "It’s so rich. …but (the anime) Akira is one of my favourite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life."

Watiti is going back to the main source material, which is all well and good, however Hollywood hasn't had a great track record with live-action Anime adaptations.The Scarlett Johansson led Ghost In The Shell and Netflix's Death Note were not only plagued by whitewashing but were also lambasted by critics and fans. But there are hits like 2014's The Edge Of Tommorow which was a critical and box office success despite swapping the original Anime's Japanese character with an American one played by Tom Cruise.

This time around, the anime on which that movie was based on is not as beloved or as popular as Akira, and Waititi has previously told IGN that "Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent."