The combination of light metals (aluminum, magnesium and titanium) and innovative casting processes provides cost-effective technologies to produce lightweight components and systems for many industrial applications. This article provides a comprehensive and yet critical review of light alloy development for cast components used in lightweight and high-performance structural and propulsion applications. It also summarized some latest process innovations in gravity casting, high pressure die casting, and low pressure casting, to overcome some fundamental issues related to defect formation in casting processes. Emerging casting processes developed in the last twenty years, such as semisolid processing, squeeze casting, ablation casting, bimetallic overcasting, and diffusion solidification processing, are discussed for further development. Recent advances in casting simulation and the concept of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) are summarized for casting applications. Finally, future perspectives in light alloy development (including green alloys, high entropy alloys and metal matric composites), process innovations (such as high integrity casting, multi-material manufacturing and additive manufacturing), and ICME development are presented to stimulate further research and sustainable development in this important field of metals processing technology.