Movies

Leslie Jones Is Not Happy About Jason Reitman's 'Ghostbusters' Sequel [Updated]

New Ghostbusters Sequel - Leslie Jones
By Ethan Anderton

Update: Ghostbusters 2016 director Paul Feig has chimed in, offering his support for Leslie Jones:

"An absolute honest to God never ending supply of bulls**t and hate from these trolls. Leslie spoke her truth and I support her. I am very open to Jason's new version of GB but am also sad that our 2016 team may not get to bust again. We all are. We're forever proud of our movie."

Our original article continues below.

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Leading up to and after the release of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, the female team of conductors of the metaphysical examination faced a lot of vitriol and venom from the angry fanboys who were simply upset about women taking over paranormal extermination duties. So it should come as no surprise that one of them is upset about the new Ghostbusters project in the works from director Jason Reitman, son of the original franchise director producer Ivan Reitman.

Leslie Jones, who played Patty Tolan in the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, lashed out on Twitter over the weekend about the all-new, surprise Ghostbusters movie in development that will act as a sequel to Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. It would be an understatement to say she's not happy about being left out in the wind.

Here's what Leslie Jones wrote on Twitter over the weekend after learning of the new Ghostbusters:

Honestly, I don't blame Leslie Jones for being upset about the new Ghostbusters being left behind like this. After all the hate that was lobbied at Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, simply because they were women, I'd be annoyed too. But personally, I don't think this decision should be nearly as insulting as she's making it out to be.

First of all, let's not forget that Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was a complete reboot of the franchise. There were no narrative ties to the original movies, despite the fact that the original firehouse became the team's new headquarters at the end of the movie, and all the references felt like overly intentional fan service that had no logical place in this version of Ghostbusters. Continuing the original franchise with a new sequel doesn't preclude the possibility of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call also getting a sequel, even if the odds are against it after the film didn't turn out to be as profitable as Sony Pictures hoped.

Secondly, making the comparison to Donald Trump and lumping the decision in with the vocal, hateful Ghostbusters fans who ragged on Answer the Call is a hasty generalization and spectacularly unfair. While there are undoubtedly some bad eggs there, it's not as if Sony Pictures, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman are making this movie because they think male Ghostbusters are superior and female Ghostbusters don't deserve attention, especially when you think about what this movie is rumored to focus on. Speaking of which...

As of now, the word on the street is that the new Ghostbusters movie will focus on four main characters, two teenage boys and two teenage girls (though other details say it's only one teenage boy and girl). It's likely that Leslie Jones didn't hear this detail since it's been one of the lower key pieces of information that surfaced since the announcement of the project, but it still makes her assumption that the franchise is going back to all-male Ghostbusters inaccurate, and her anger a little more misplaced.

Thankfully, she clarified a little bit as to what her real beef with this situation is:

That's a fair reaction to have. But at the end of the day, if audiences didn't turn out well enough for Ghostbusters for the studio to greenlight a sequel, and if original Ghostbusters fans are more interested in whatever this new sequel is, then the market has spoken. It's not necessarily an indicator of the worth of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call or the male-driven vs female-driven films. Plenty of satisfying movies end up going without sequels, and that's just how the business works sometimes. I won't criticize Leslie Jones for being disappointed, but much like the angry fanboys shouldn't have flung so much hate at Answer the Call for no good reason, she shouldn't be blasting this project sight unseen either.

Look, I'm a die hard fan of the original Ghostbusters. And I also liked the first half of the new Ghostbusters before it lost itself in too much blockbuster mayhem in the second half and started making a mess of the universe it created. So I'm on board for anything the Ghostbusters franchise has to offer just out of sheer curiosity. I wish everyone would just chill out and let this movie play out before we start getting bent out of shape about it and start another unnecessarily exhausting press cycle.

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