Ghostbusters: Melissa McCarthy Offers Her Support to Reitman's Sequel

It looks like the upcoming Ghostbusters from Jason Reitman is getting support from Melissa McCarthy, as the film prepares to start filming in a few months time. There's been wildly mixed reactions from fans of the original films and the 2016 reboot since the project was officially announced earlier in 2019. Now, it looks like McCarthy is firmly planting her flag in the pro-Reitman Ghostbusters camp, which could help add legitimacy to the film.

It was announced back in January that Jason Reitman - son of Ivan Reitman, who directed Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 - would be directing his own Ghostbusters film. The film is set for release in 2020 and due to start filming in June, with attention and curiosity over it exploding when it was reported that the film would ignore the events of the 2016 reboot starring McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. Instead, the film will take a Jumanji-like approach by focusing on a group of teens who battle the paranormal as the titular Ghostbusters.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight at the 2019 Oscar Wilde Awards in Santa Monica, California, McCarthy was asked what her feelings were about the planned third film, which will follow more closely to the first two Ghostbusters films while seemingly ignoring the Ghostbusters reboot that she herself starred in. "I'm for anybody who's making movies," McCarthy shared with ET. "I talked to Jason about it. He's just always had this idea, and his [idea] goes back to the world where the guys did exist and I'm like, 'I want to see that.' I'm all for it. I say like, 'Tell the story.'"

McCarthy is one of the few speaking up in support of the planned third installment and is one of three involved in the 2009 reboot who many would obviously look to for an opinion about the new film. In addition to McCarthy, Ghostbusters reboot star Leslie Jones also spoke up when news of the third film was announced, although she had a more negative view of it all and said it was "so insulting" and that the film seemed to be greenlit as if the 2016 film "didn't count." Paul Feig, who directed McCarthy and Jones in the 2016 film, also went on record to support Jones, saying in a tweet that he was "very open to Jason’s new version of GB but am also sad that our 2016 team may not get to bust again."

McCarthy, Jones, and Feig's opinions on the upcoming Ghostbusters film seem to be emblematic of the total discord among Ghostbusters fans about Reitman's film. One side is understandably excited for more adventures in the Ghostbusters universe. The other side takes issue with the fact that Reitman's film will actively ignore the 2016 film and instead continue from where 1989's Ghostbusters 2 left off, seemingly erasing a film that many fans fought so hard to have validated within the fandom. With different corners of the Ghostbusters fandom so deeply protective of certain films, it's going to be tough to gauge how Reitman's film will be received and subsequently situated within the Ghostbusters universe. That said, with only a teaser trailer and a brief plot description available, it'll be curious to see what shape the new film takes and how Reitman navigates this early controversy.