Leslie Jones: The New ‘Ghostbusters’ Is Insulting, ‘Like Something Trump Would Do’

Leslie Jones, buster of ghosts Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer January 21, 2019

When at first you don’t succeed, abandon women and go back to making movies starring only men.

This, Leslie Jones claims, is the reasoning behind Jason Reitman’s upcoming “Ghostbusters” sequel — another follow-up to the classic film after the woman-focused reboot starring Jones was a box office bomb in 2016. Reitman, whose father Ivan Reitman directed the 1984 film, released a teaser for a 2020 “Ghostbusters” sequel last Wednesday.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the third “Ghostbusters” will be set “in the original universe,” that is — a universe when the ghost busting industry was 100% male.

And though the teaser doesn’t feature any human life forms, Jones seems to feel that she — along with her 2016 co-stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon — are being zapped out of existence.

So insulting. Like fuck us. We dint count. It’s like something trump would do. (Trump voice)”Gonna redo ghostbusteeeeers, better with men, will be huge. Those women ain’t ghostbusteeeeers” ugh so annoying. Such a dick move. And I don’t give fuck I’m saying something!!

— Leslie Jones ? (@Lesdoggg) January 19, 2019

“So insulting,” she tweeted in response to the news of the new movie. “It’s like something Trump would do. (Trump voice)”Gonna redo ghostbusteeeeers, better with men, will be huge.”

It’s not clear who will be donning proton packs in Reitman’s new film, but Jones isn’t wrong that the new movie plans to wipe away the memory of the 2016 movie like so much green slime. “I have so much respect for what Paul [Feig] created with those brilliant actresses, and would love to see more stories from them,” Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. “However, this new movie will follow the trajectory of the original film.”

“I’ve always thought of myself as the first ‘Ghostbusters’ fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set,” Reitman said. “I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans.” Reitman senior, who escaped Czechoslovakia with his Holocaust-survivor parents in 1950, will produce his son’s movie.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO