The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot wasn’t the hit many people had hoped for. The female-fronted remake not only received mixed reviews from critics but also proved disappointing at the box office, so much so that it resulted in a hefty loss for Sony Pictures.
But despite the film’s less-than-stellar reception, its director Paul Feig is not opposed to helming a sequel. In fact, he seems pretty thrilled with the idea.
“We would love [to make another movie]; it’s really up to the studio,” Feig told Yahoo! Entertainment during last week’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas. “We had so much fun making that movie.”
The 2016 installment starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, who replaced the original 1984 Ghostbusters quartet played by Bill Maury, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson.
Though Feig previously stated that another Ghostbusters installment would “definitely” happen, fans have yet to receive any significant updates about a potential sequel.
During a 2017 interview with Vulture, Feig claimed that the Ghostbusters sequel became too much of a “cause,” as the all-female cast had polarized fans of the original films.
“I think it kind of hampered us a little bit because the movie became so much of a cause. I think for some of our audience, they were like, ‘What the fuck? We don’t wanna go to a cause. We just wanna watch a fuckin’ movie,’” he said. “[…] It’s not a perfect movie. None of my movies are perfect. I liked what we were doing with it. It was only supposed to be there to entertain people.”
In the two years since Ghostbusters hit the big screen, the filmmaker has reportedly received countless requests to direct a follow-up. He told Yahoo! that despite the movie’s disappointing reception, he’s very proud of what he and his team created.
“The movie’s just really built an audience in the two years since it’s been out. I get contacted every day by people who are such fans of it, and so many women who are inspired by seeing women in science,” Feig said. “I will go to my grave so proud of that movie, and so proud of what that cast did in that film.”
