Actress Rooney Mara is no stranger to the dust-up that inevitably occurs after a film adaptation of a novel announces its cast list. Her role as Lisbeth Salander in the American adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo subjected her to both novel fans’ idealistic expectations and comparisons to Swedish adaptation actress Noomi Rapace.

However, her latest casting as Tiger Lily in the upcoming Warner Bros. Peter Pan adaptation Pan is ruffling feathers for a much different reason.

The reason: Tiger Lily is a Native American princess. Rooney Mara is of Irish, German, French-Canadian and Italian descent, but not Native American.

The backlash was immediate. With the number of Native American roles already so small, many asked, why give Tiger Lily’s role to a white actress? Native American roles make up only a minuscule .3 percent of total roles, according to the Screen Actors Guild 2007 and 2008 Casting Data Reports.

A Care2 petition asking Warner Bros. to reconsider their casting decision has already accrued 7,878 signatures out of their desired 8,000. With tensions already simmering after Johnny Depp’s casting as Tonto in The Lone Ranger last year, social media exploded. Actress Felicia Day tweeted her displeasure.

Wait, they cast a white chick for Tiger Lily in new Peter Pan? Did they not remember Lone Ranger last year? Oh and you know, racism?

— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) March 14, 2014

The studio also considered Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyonog’o and French actress Adele Exarchopoulos for the role of Tiger Lily. So far, it appears a Native American actress was not seriously considered for the role.

Nonetheless, Variety reported that the film’s world is to be “multi-racial/international – and a very different character than previously imagined.” However, the current cast list does not seem promising. Mara will star beside Garret Hedlund as Hook, Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard and Levi Miller as Pan. Adeel Akhtar is reportedly slated to play Mr. Smee, the only sign of that “multi-racial” world evident so far.

Pan will be released in July 2015.

Image via Youtube