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‘Ghostbusters’ Director Hits Back At Haters After Criticism Of Film’s All-Female Cast

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 23:55 PST, Mar 3, 2016

The first official trailer for the all-female Ghostbusters reboot landed Thursday morning, stirring up the hornet’s nest that is the internet. So far, the two-minute trailer has been nothing short of polarizing, but if we go by the comments being posted across social media, it seems like the reason for the hate is the fact that the all-male characters from the Ghostbusters movies of yesteryear have been replaced by females.

Paul Feig, the director and co-writer of the new Ghostbusters film, was well aware of all the criticisms being thrown at the trailer and had no qualms hitting back at those who believe that the new movie’s all-women cast (Melissa McCarthy, 45, Kristen Wiig, 42, Leslie Jones, 48, and Kate McKinnon, 32) have no place taking up the mantle of the original cast.

When asked by Buzzfeed about his thoughts on all the haterade the new Ghostbusters film has been receiving of late, Paul has made it known that he won’t even bother with misogynists.

“If it’s pure misogyny, it’s a non-starter to me,” Paul told Buzzfeed. “I go, ‘You’re somebody I don’t even want to deal with.'”

Katie Dippold, another co-writer for the new Ghostbusters, recounted to Buzzfeed the hate tweets she received on the internet on account of her involvement with the film.

“There’s a group of people I feel like are annoyed that it’s women… I think there are people who just think that this is just a gimmick, that the only reason to do this is just because it’s women, but it’s actually the opposite. We want to make a new Ghostbusters. We love Ghostbusters. It’s like been 30 years. We want to see a new one. We want it to be funny, we want it to be scary. And it so happens that we think the four funniest people to be Ghostbusters are those people.”

“There were a few funny people,” said Dippold. “There was one guy — I think my favorite tweet — there was this man who was sincerely trying to help, who said, ‘Listen, I am not sexist, but women just cannot handle that kind of action and dialogue.'”

“I was just like, ‘Thank you so much, sir,'” added Dippold, “Thank you for your concern.”

As of this writing, the new Ghostbusters trailer has 81,752 thumbs up and 134,015 thumbs down. That like/dislike ratio is not common even among movies that were considered terrible by general consensus. Heck, even the Fantastic Four trailer, which is considerably worse, fared better with 40,523 thumbs up and 7,093 thumbs down.

So why all the hate for a trailer that doesn’t even last three minutes? Is it really misogyny? Is it a case of old fanboys adamant about their childhoods getting ruined by a property that no longer cater to them? Is it the now-growing aversion to so-called “Social Justice Warriors”? Or is it because the trailer just plain sucked? All of the above?

Watch the trailer for the Ghostbusters reboot below and judge for yourself.

Ironically, while the new Ghostbusters movie is being labeled “progressive” by most, the trailer received some criticisms in regards to black presentation, particularly Leslie Jones being the only black star in the film and filling the stereotypical sassy black woman trope. To make matters worse, her character is the only member of the Ghostbusters crew who is not a scientist, which in the eyes of some viewers, perpetuates the notion that black people can only be street smart, not scientist-smart.

It seems like everyone has a strong opinion on the trailer. Do you think that the hate and criticisms being thrown at the new Ghostbusters trailer are fair? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment]

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