Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) lets loose in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures
In yet again attempting to blame the film’s failure on the undefined spectre of ‘bigotry’, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call director Paul Feig has claimed that not only was the backlash to his all-female franchise reboot a result of “the political climate of the time”, but “many” of those who were unhappy with the film were unabashed “Trump supporters”.

Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) land on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures
The reboot director offered his latest reflection on the discourse surrounding his 2016 box office bomb while answering a handful of fan questions, as submitted to him by the readership of UK news outlet The Guardian.

In conclusion to his Q&A, Feig was met with the inquiry, “Why did you make 2016’s Ghostbusters a full-blown reboot that ignored the original films?”, to which he explained, “Bill [Murray] had publicly said he didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters at that point. Harold Ramis had died. Dan [Aykroyd] and Ernie [Hudson] were there, but half the team felt weird. It had been 30 years and Bill and the gang were so iconic; I didn’t want to do anything that hurt the original movies.”
Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) find themselves faced with money troubles in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures
The question itself now answered, Feig, completely of his own volition, then turned his attentions to discussing the film’s poor reception.

“The political climate of the time was really weird, with Hillary Clinton running for office in 2016,” said the Bridesmaids director. “There were a lot of dudes looking for a fight. When I was getting piled on, on Twitter, I’d go back and see who they were. So many were Trump supporters. Then Trump came out against us. He was like: ‘They’re remaking Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. You can’t do that. And now they’re making Ghostbusters with only women. What’s going on?’ and got all upset. Everybody went f–king cannibal.”

“It turned the movie into a political statement, as if to say: ‘If you’re pro-women, you’re going to go see this. If you’re not, then…,’” he concluded. “I didn’t think it mattered at all that the main characters were women, but people brought a lot of baggage.”
Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) unleash their Proton Packs in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures
As noted above, this is far from the first time Feig has attempted to blame the bombing of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call on a supposed ‘hate campaign’.

Speaking to the film’s failure in 2018 while being interviewed by The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin, the director declared, “I have been dying for somebody to look at Hillary Clinton’s campaign and us, because we were caught in the exact same vortex.”

“It was shocking. I still think about it a lot, honestly – sometimes I’m like, ‘OK, stop thinking about it,’” he told his host. “Because I’m really proud of the movie, and while people still send me mean things, overwhelmingly more people tell me they love it. Parents and their children, women in their 20s and 30s who were inspired to go into science, or are in love with Kate McKinnon. But I definitely felt like we were the icebreaker going through the Arctic. People weren’t yet used to the idea that this could happen.”

“It ignited these passions that were already around because Trump was stirring them up,” he opined. “I think these guys felt they were losing control.”

The titular team receives a dressing down from Agent Rourke (Matt Walsh) in Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (2016), Sony Pictures
Likewise, reflecting on his failure during a 2020 interview with SiriusXM host Jess Cagle, Feig asserted “I think some really brilliant author or research or sociologist needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined we were with Hillary and the anti-Hillary movement and it was like just this year where…I don’t know, just everyone went to a boiling point. I don’t know if it was having an African American president for 8 years teed them up or something, but they were just ready to explode.”

“It’s crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be in power or be in positions that they weren’t normally in,” he added, “and it was an ugly year.”
Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) is intrigued by the team’s latest opponent in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), Columbia Pictures