Paul Feig’s 2016 Ghostbusters reboot faced one of the most intense misogynistic attacks in recent film history, and the director believes Donald Trump played a role in amplifying the backlash.
Reflecting on the controversy in a recent interview with The Guardian, Feig explained how the political atmosphere at the time, with Hillary Clinton running for president, created a particularly hostile environment. “There were a lot of angry guys looking to pick a fight. When I checked who was piling on me on Twitter, many turned out to be Trump supporters,” Feig shared while promoting his latest movie, Jackpot.
He also pointed out that Trump himself contributed to the backlash. “Trump openly criticized us,” Feig said. “He made a big fuss, saying things like, ‘They’re remaking Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford, and now they’re doing Ghostbusters with just women. What’s going on?’ He was really upset about it.”
The uproar turned the film into a political issue. Feig commented, “People acted like seeing the movie meant taking a stance. It was like, ‘If you’re pro-women, go watch it. If not, don’t.’ I never intended for the gender of the characters to be a big deal, but people brought their own biases into it.”
Feig’s Ghostbusters featured his Bridesmaids collaborators Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, alongside Saturday Night Live stars Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. The film didn’t directly reference the 1984 original or its 1989 sequel, making it a fresh take on the franchise. Chris Hemsworth played their charming but clueless receptionist, and the original cast members, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts, made cameos as new characters.
Explaining why he chose to reboot instead of making a sequel, Feig said, “I didn’t have the full original cast onboard. Bill Murray had made it clear he didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis had passed away, and while Dan and Ernie were interested, it just didn’t feel right. It had been 30 years, and I didn’t want to do anything that might hurt the legacy of the originals.”
Despite the controversy, the 2016 Ghostbusters earned around $229 million globally on a $144 million budget and received mixed but generally positive reviews, with a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 60/100 on Metascore, and a B+ Cinemascore.
As Sony plotted the future of the franchise, they decided to return to the roots of the series. The next two films, 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, are direct sequels to the 1980s films rather than reboots. While these sequels grossed slightly less at the box office—around $204 million and $201 million, respectively—they were more profitable due to significantly smaller budgets.
