Known for directing the universally-maligned Ghostbusters reboot, Paul Feig is praising the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer. In the past, Feig has gone on record with his desire to make his own Ghostbusters 2, stating how proud he is of the reboot he helmed and suggesting he’d jump at the chance to do a sequel if Sony were to give him a call. That doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon, but even so, Feig makes it clear he harbors no negative feelings towards Afterlife or those involved with the project by offering this statement on Twitter.
“This looks so awesome. Huge congrats to Jason Reitman and his amazing cast and crew. I cannot WAIT to see this! #weareallghostbusters.”
Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters 2016 reboot introduced an all-new team of Ghostbusters, which included Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Kristeen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy. It served as a complete remake of the original movie, setting the story in a new timeline with no connection to the prior installments of the franchise. Right away, most fans made it clear they were not on board with the project, and its trailer became the most-disliked movie trailer on YouTube before the movie was even released. To make matters worse, the movie underperformed in a big way at the box office, falling well short of studio expectations and killing any and all plans to continue this new story in potential Paul Feig directed sequels.
One of the biggest complaints fans had about Feig’s movie was that it completely ignored the original Ghostbusters and its sequel by completely rebooting the story. This is a mistake which will be rectified by Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which returns to the original continuity of the franchise by directly referencing the movies in a big way. Even if the original stars are no longer leading the ghost-hunting team, it seems clear that most fans are willing to accept a new cast of characters at the center of the story, so as long as the first two movies aren’t totally ignored. Including the actual Ecto-1 is just one of many ways the new movie will be throwing back to the original, so many fans should certainly be happy in that regard.
While we don’t see any in the new trailer, many original stars of the first two Ghostbusters movies have also been confirmed to appear in Afterlife. This includes Bill Murray as Peter Venkman, Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore, Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz, Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett, and Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz. Hopefully, a familiar green ghost will be making an appearance as well. Leading the new cast for Afterlife are Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, and Logan Kim.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is scheduled to premiere in theaters on July 10, 2020. Time will tell if the movie fares better at the box office than Feig’s reboot, but it certainly looks that way when comparing the new trailer’s positive reception to the way fans reacted to the first trailer for the 2016 movie. If all goes well, we could be looking at the start of a new Ghostbusters movie series. This news comes to us from Paul Feig.
This looks so awesome. Huge congrats to @JasonReitman and his amazing cast and crew. I cannot WAIT to see this! #weareallghostbusters 👻🏆👏❤️ https://t.co/hsUAaxYS9E
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) December 10, 2019
