Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire star Ernie Hudson recently offered his thoughts as to why the franchise’s 2016 reboot failed to click with the fandom.
Speaking with The Independent, Hudson reflected on the female-led Ghostbusters reboot, where he appeared as Leslie Jones’ character’s uncle, Bill Jenkins, noting that the decision to reboot the franchise instead of continue from the original films was probably the wrong idea.
“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,” he said, suggesting that the 2016 reboot would have been better received if it had been a legacy sequel like the next movie, 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Hudson added that he found the female-led cast — Jones, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon — “brilliantly funny on their own,” but explained that fans were really “invested in the [original] 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.”
Fans didn’t love the Ghostbusters reboot
Taking place in an alternate universe, 2016’s Ghostbusters (later rebranded Ghostbusters: Answer the Call on home media) follows a group of eccentric researchers who, after a paranormal encounter, begin a ghost-catching business in New York City. Besides Wiig, McCarthy, Jones, and McKinnon, the cast included Chris Hemsworth, Andy García, and Cecily Strong, among others.
Joining Hudson in making a cameo in the female-led reboot were original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts, as well as Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman, who co-produced the 2016 movie.
The box office failure of 2016’s Ghostbusters prompted Sony to return to the original timeline in Afterlife, which featured the original cast back as their respective iconic characters in supporting roles. A sequel, Frozen Empire, was released in theaters on March 22.
