I think Paul Feig might be trying to kill me, because he just announced that Sigourney Weaver will be in the Ghostbusters reboot! Whoops, please clear an area by my feet, because I'm pretty sure I'm about to fall down dead where I stand. I might be exaggerating a little, but honestly not a whole lot, given what this movie already has going for it. Not only is it a lady-centric reboot of the classic, which I already loved, but it stars an ever-expanding group of people who give me nothing but comedy boners 24/7. We've got Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Kristen Wiig in the lead roles, spending an entire movie in the closest proximity to each other that four of my heroes have ever been ever. Their casting alone was enough to leave me short of breath, but now finding out that Weaver is joining on as well is almost too much to take.
In case you were born in the 2000s or under a rock, Sigourney Weaver played the role of Dana Barrett in the original Ghostbusters, in 1984, and its sequel in 1989. She's the Ghostbusters' first client, on account of living alone in a haunted apartment, a fate that is undoubtedly coming eventually to all of us unmarried women living independently, and she spends the rest of the movie being flirted with by approximately every male who crosses her path, and, y'know, unleashing sexual demons upon the world at her moment of climax. As we single ladies do.
We don't yet know whether Weaver will reprise her original role as Dana Barrett or take on a new one as a sort of wink to the camera for fans of the original franchise, and I honestly don't know which I'd prefer at this point. I assumed when I started writing this post that I'd want more Barrett, but that was before I really started thinking about the role that her character played. Sure, the entire plot pretty much hinged on Dana Barrett, and she got to play a lot with comedy, but only as a sexual figure, getting passed from one male lead to another, always the victim of a new attack from the world of the supernatural and in need of assistance. Not great, in retrospect, and it makes me think a lot about her role in the new film.
I trust Paul Feig — as should you, since he directed Bridesmaids — to treat Weaver the actor and Barrett the character with respect, and not oversexualize either of them, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about that is. Should Feig give Weaver another shot at Barrett, to fill in some of the details beyond just her date-ability, or should it be a complete fresh start, with Weaver getting an entirely new character to bring herself to?
I'm leaning toward the first option, so that Weaver has the chance to bring more nuance to a likable but largely two-dimensional character. At the end of the day, there's only really good news here: Sigourney Weaver is coming back to the Ghostbusters franchise, and all is right in the world! (Except for the part where ghosts still exist, oh well.)
Images: Giphy
