Original “Ghostbusters” star Dan Aykroyd says fans shouldn’t be scared off by the backlash surrounding the upcoming female-led reboot.
The 63-year-old comic defended the controversial spin-off of his classic 1984 comedy, praising the performances of the four female leads while deeming it even funnier than either of his two “Ghostbusters” movies.
“Apart from brilliant, genuine performances from the cast both female and male, it has more laughs and more scares than the first 2 films plus Bill Murray is in it!” Aykroyd wrote on Facebook after viewing a test screening.
The forthcoming flick — starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon — has been slammed by some diehards of the original series who aren’t eager to see four women filling the ghost-fighting uniforms once worn by Aykroyd, Murray and Harold Ramis.
The official trailer has tallied more than 851,000 thumbs-down votes since being uploaded to YouTube on March 3 — the most in the website’s history. Conversely, it’s only garnered just over 245,000 thumbs-ups. It’s unclear if those numbers are the result of an active campaign against the movie.
But Aykroyd, who played Ray Stantz in the fan-favorite originals, promised the naysayers will be forced to vacuum up their words.
“As one of millions of man-fans and Ray Stantz, I’m paying to see that and bringing all my friends!” the actor concluded his post.
The actor, who is expected to make a cameo in the film, is the latest person connected to the franchise to curse those criticizing the film’s casting before it hits theaters.
McCarthy fired back at the scrutiny in an interview with London’s The Guardian published over the weekend, saying she hopes the haters can “find a friend” so they don’t have to spend their energy professing their anger on the Internet.
“All those comments — ‘You’re ruining my childhood!’ I mean, really,” she said. “Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood? I have a visual of those people not having a (spouse), not having friends, so they’re just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet.
The “Ghostbusters” reboot floats into theaters on July 15.
