Hate to say it, but if you follow movies at all nowadays, "whitewashing" is a big deal and the negative impact as a repercussion has sunk quite a few movies.
Whitewashing is the act of casting Caucasians in roles that are meant to be played by actors of a different nationality, race or color..Ghost in the shell, Gods of Egypt, even Dr Strange got hit with that ( though the political impact of casting a Tibetan in a movie that's set to run in China, it's somewhat understandable why they made the change....). One example of whitewashing killing a movie was the uproar over casting Johnny Depp as Tonto in the Lone Ranger
Casting Haley in the role formerly played by an African American, one as famous as Whoopi, I think would result in quite a major negative impact for the producers and Haley....