Paul Feig never intended to make “who you gonna call?” such a politically-charged question.
The Emmy-nominated writer and director explained that he made his 2016 female-led Ghostbusters reboot as it would have “felt weird” to continue with only part of the original cast after star Bill Murray publicly shot down the idea of a sequel.
“It had been 30 years and Bill and the gang were so iconic; I didn’t want to do anything that hurt the original movies,” Feig told The Guardian.
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The reboot stars Kristen Wiig as physicist Erin Gilbert and Melissa McCarthy as paranormal researcher Abby Yates, who reunite years after trying to prove that ghosts exist in modern society. When strange apparitions pop up in Manhattan, they turn to engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and lifelong New Yorker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) for help.
“The political climate of the time was really weird, with Hillary Clinton running for office in 2016,” explained Feig. “There were a lot of dudes looking for a fight. When I was getting piled on, on Twitter, I’d go back and see who they were. So many were Trump supporters.
“Then Trump came out against us. He was like: ‘They’re remaking Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. You can’t do that. And now they’re making Ghostbusters with only women. What’s going on?’ and got all upset. Everybody went f—ing cannibal. It turned the movie into a political statement, as if to say: ‘If you’re pro-women, you’re going to go see this. If you’re not, then …’ I didn’t think it mattered at all that the main characters were women, but people brought a lot of baggage.”
Feig’s Ghostbusters premiered July 15, 2016, grossing $229.1 million worldwide. That November, Trump and running mate Mike Pence won the presidential election against Clinton and Tim Kaine.
Although Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts did not reprise their roles from the original 1984 movie and 1989 sequel, they made cameos in the reboot. Co-star Harold Ramis died at age 69 in 2014. They ultimately reprised their roles in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), but Weaver sat out the latest installment.
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