Brow Beat

Sigourney Weaver Will Appear in Jason Reitman’s Upcoming Ghostbusters Movie

Sigourney Weaver in the original Ghostbusters.
Ceci n’est pas une Dana. Columbia

When Jason Reitman announced that he was making a new Ghostbusters film “for all the other fans” of the franchise back in January, the Ghostbusters fan community rejoiced. They had just suffered the shock of having their childhoods ruined by Paul Feig’s 2016 female-led reboot, so Reitman’s promise to “hand the movie back to the fans” was taken as an implicit guarantee that nothing in the new Ghostbusters movie would offend the people who got histrionic about the prospect of a Ghostbusters movie starring women. On Saturday, however, the other shoe dropped: Reitman has cast a woman in his movie. Buried deep in a Parade profile of Alien star Sigourney Weaver was the following news:

[Weaver is] also set to reunite with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the new Ghostbusters, due July 2020. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!” she says. She won’t reveal any details except to confirm she’s reprising her role as hauntee Dana Barrett.

It’s possible, of course, that fans will give Sigourney Weaver a pass they wouldn’t give to Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, on the grounds that Weaver was in the original Ghostbusters. But there’s a fine line between “handing the movie back to the fans” and “handing the movie back to the fans except this time Sigourney Weaver gets to do more than just be in peril until an all-male Ghostbusters squad rescues her.” Either way, one thing is becoming clear: This movie is going to generate some hilarious Reddit posts.