“Ghostbusters”' Ernie Hudson Says All-Female Reboot Was 'Disappointing': 'Just Make Another Movie'

"I enjoyed the movie, but I think it wasn’t what fans were hoping for," said the actor

Ernie Hudson is looking back at the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and why he thinks it didn't connect with longtime fans of the franchise.

The actor, 78, was part of the original Ghostbusters cast, starting with the 1984 original, and he returned for 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the latest, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, alongside fellow O.G.'s Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.

Speaking to The Independent, Hudson shared his thoughts on the 2016 movie, which was meant to reboot the iconic series at the time but underperformed at the box office. That film, directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), starred Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

"Look, I’m a fan of 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.

"Fans were really invested in the story and the characters, and I think it was disappointing," added Hudson, who had a cameo in the 2016 movie, adding, "I enjoyed the movie, but I think it wasn’t what fans were hoping for."

He also said that Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon and Jones are "brilliantly funny on their own."

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Related: Original Ghostbusters Stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson Join Paul Rudd at Frozen Empire Premiere

Back in 2021, Hudson told Living Life Fearless that while he "liked" the female-led Ghostbusters movie "a lot," they tried to make "another version of what we already did," and "I think that was a mistake."

"It wasn’t a continuation or an extension of. It was somehow a different universe there. You know what I mean? It’s kind of like us, but it’s us but not us. In that universe, they’re women. I don’t know. That was a choice that was made," he said at the time. "... It just felt like a retelling of the same story, which automatically causes comparisons that you really don’t need to be doing."

Even before the 2016 film debuted in theaters, it became the subject of sexist attacks online. In her 2023 memoir, Jones, 56, recalled the racist and sexist messages she received online over her Ghostbusters role, saying she "got taken through the ringer" during that time.

Back in October 2015, Wiig, 50, told The Los Angeles Times that the backlash surrounding just the announcement of the film was "surprising" to her: "Some people said some really not nice things about the fact that there were women. It didn't make me mad, it just really bummed me out. We're really honoring those movies."

Related: Sherri Shepherd Has Ghostbusters Star Ernie Hudson Sign Her Chest on TV: 'Been Waiting for Years to Ask'

McCarthy, 53, in September 2021, reflected on the backlash their Ghostbusters faced upon its release.

"There's no end to stories we can tell, and there's so many reboots and relaunches and different interpretations, and to say any of them are wrong, I just don't get it," McCarthy told Yahoo! Entertainment.

"I don't get the fight to see who can be the most negative and the most hate-filled. Everybody should be able to tell the story they want to tell. If you don't want to see it, you don't have to see it."

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is in theaters now.

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