Ghostbusters was first released in 1984 and everybody was enthralled but with the new trailer for Ghostbusters (2016) a lot of people are reconsidering who they’re going to call. The first films were written by Dan Aykroyd, who was at the height of his career, riding the success of movies like Trading Places and The Blues Brothers. One of the other leading actors was Bill Murray who was also a household name due to his iconic role in Caddyshack and appearances on Saturday Night Live. Though Ernie Hudson was an African-American actor, he was a relatively well-known talent and an integral part of the cast.
When the trailer for the new film was released yesterday it started a small firestorm on Twitter and other social media sites. The new team of Ghostbusters is all women (gasp), and while people were willing to accept a group of men with nuclear accelerators strapped to their backs running around New York City catching ghosts, they weren’t so keen on women doing just that. Many of the early reviewers also had a lot of negative things to say about the film and what they expect from the picture.
Immediately, the more sexist of Twitter users launched into their rants about the female roles. Keep in mind all this comes on the tailwind of a whitewashed Oscar crowd that made people take a serious look at Hollywood diversity. We learned that Hollywood often just doesn’t provide the opportunity for women and people of color to take on leading roles. Also, Sony, a studio that has been recently revealed to pay their actresses significantly less than their male counterparts, is producing the film. People also seemed to be upset by the fact that Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids, Tammy) is now a Ghostbuster. It appears that while they’re not comfortable with a female Ghostbuster, they’re especially uncomfortable with a curvy female Ghostbuster.
Feminists on Twitter quickly took to their phones and battled back against the users hating on the trailer. People should have learned that particular social media platform is a bad place to voice any anti-feminist views. You can watch the full trailer below, and while we’re a bit tired of 80’s remakes, and the new Ghostbusters are exclusively women, this film looks to be very promising. I suppose we’ll just have to wait until the summer to find out.
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