Ghostbusters veteran Ernie Hudson has shared his reasoning as to why 2016's reboot, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, just did not resonate with audiences. The return of the Ghostbusters franchise with 2021's Afterlife, and this year's sequel, Frozen Empire, has received a resounding thumbs up from long-term fans, but the Melissa McCarthy-led attempt to reinvigorate the franchise did not get the same reception.
Ghostbusters 2016
PG-13
Comedy
Action
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Release Date
July 14, 2016
Director
Paul Feig
Cast
Kristen Wiig , Melissa McCarthy , Kate McKinnon , Leslie Jones , Zach Woods , Ed Begley Jr.
Runtime
116
Main Genre
Comedy
Writers
Katie Dippold , Paul Feig , Ivan Reitman , Dan Aykroyd , Harold Ramis
Studio
Sony Pictures
Tagline
Who you gonna call?
Hudson joins OG franchise stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Annie Potts in the new movie, along with the new stars of Afterlife such as Paul Rudd and Mckenna Grace. While speaking to The Independent, the Hudson explained why, despite having a good director in Paul Feig, rebooting Ghostbusters was always likely to fail.
“Look, I’m a fan of [director] Paul Feig so I have nothing negative about him to say. Other than: I don’t quite understand why you do a reboot, you know what I mean? Just make another movie. Fans were really invested in the story and the characters and I think it was disappointing. I enjoyed the movie but I think it wasn’t what fans were hoping for."
This commentary pretty much mirrors that of fans at the time of the reboot’s release, who would have been happy to accept a film about a group coming together to save a city from ghosts, if only it hadn’t been adorned with the Ghostbusters title, and instead stood on its own merits.
Ghostbusters Fans Have Loved Seeing the OG Team Return
Although the reboot did not scratch an itch for Ghostbusters fans, it may have helped to prove that fans really wanted to see the original cast return for a legacy sequel. While it was no mean feat making that happen, the resulting release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife was hugely successful in many ways.
The film turned a profit at the box office, despite arriving during the latter stages of the Covid pandemic, and its Rotten Tomatoes audience score surpassed even the 1984 movie to become the best rated film of the franchise, according to fans. Although critics were not quite as enamoured with the belated offering, something that has rolled over to the release of Frozen Empire, director Gil Kenan and executive producer Jason Reitman have been more than happy with the response, and are already working out ideas of what could come next. Kenan recently told Total Film:
“Jason and I really love Ghostbusters. We love these characters and we would be really happy if audiences were down to keep going on adventures with them. If audiences feel this way, then we know what the next stories are going to be.”
For now, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire topped the box office this weekend, and marginally improved on the opening weekend of its predecessor. This suggests that Kenan and Reitman may get their wish to make busting feel good for a little while yet.
