‘Ghostbusters’: All-Female Reboot a Victim of 2016’s ‘Anti-Hillary Movement,’ Says Director Paul Feig

Paul Feig has reflected on the vitriolic response to his women-led “Ghostbusters” reboot, claiming it was similar to criticism faced by Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign for president.

In a discussion with Julia Cunningham on “The Jess Cagle Show” on SiriusXM, Feig discussed the vocal negativity that arose following the casting of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the leads of the film.

“Some really brilliant author or researcher or sociologist needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined [our film was] with Hillary [Clinton] and the anti-Hillary movement,” Feig said. “It was just this year where everyone went to a boiling point. I don’t know if it was [having] an African-American president for eight years [that] teed them up or something, but they were just ready to explode… By the time, in 2014 or 2015, when I announced I was going to [make] it, it started.”

Feig went on to point toward President Trump’s own negative comments regarding the film as indicative of a larger ideological tie between the criticism both faced.

“It’s crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be in power or trying to be in positions that they weren’t normally in,” Feig said. “It was an ugly, ugly year.”

The rebooted “Ghostbusters” faced negative online reactions up to its release. It grossed $229.1 million at the global box office and Sony Pictures, the film’s distributor, lost upward of $50 million.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” a direct sequel to “Ghostbusters II” with no narrative ties to the 2016 reboot, is set to release on March 5, 2021 after being delayed from its July 10 release date due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film stars Paul Rudd,