The 'Ghostbusters' Reboot Trailer Also Confused Melissa McCarthy

When the first trailer for the Ghostbusters reboot debuted a couple months ago, the opening moments confused some fans of the original franchise. While we heard that this new film from director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold was supposed to be a reboot with no narrative ties to the original franchise, the first few shots and the bumpers in between referenced the events of the first film that happened 30 years ago. This made some audiences wonder if there was some kind of link between the old and new movies after all, and they weren't the only ones who were confused.

Melissa McCarthy recently appeared on a radio program to discuss the forthcoming summer release, and in their conversation, she expressed her own confusion from those opening shots in the trailer as well. Find out what she had to say about the Ghostbusters reboot after the jump.

Speaking on The John, Jay & Rich Show (via The Guardian), McCarthy clarified what the movie is by calling it a reboot and not a remake (though sometimes the differences between the two aren't clear in Hollywood) and then talked about her perspective on the trailer:

I know it's weird that they say [in the trailer] '30 years ago', but in this movie it's like the first one didn't happen. It's a great story but it's told totally differently. It's four unlikely heroes, it's in New York City, ghosts are taking over; it's that same classic story but it's not 30 years later ... it's not dependent on the first one.

The reference to the events that happened 30 years ago in the first film was something that McCarthy apparently questioned behind the scenes, but no one else thought it was a concern. The actress explained, "Believe me the question was asked. I think that it's very confusing. But then everyone said, 'we don't care what you think.'"

McCarthy was undoubtedly right to question why the film was being marketed that way, because plenty of fans were confused and asking questions. The framing of the trailer and what we've seen from the movie so far even prompted yours truly to come to the conclusion that the reboot really should take place in the same universe as the original Ghostbusters.

As of now, we've heard directly from Paul Feig and Katie Dippold that their movie does not have any narrative links to the old Ghostbusters, and they had a couple specific reasons as to why they wanted to make the movie that way. However, more recently Feig mentioned that the studio might be trying to figure out how to connect the films by way of a multiverse.

Perhaps the studio thinks making some kind of connection (even if it's a deceptive one as seen in the first trailer) will help squash the backlash and confusion among fans. After all, a contingent of fans have gotten the Ghostbusters reboot trailer to become the most disliked trailer on YouTube. However, it seems like nothing will convince those passionate but misguided fans to give the movie a chance.

As a huge Ghostbusters fan, I want the reboot to work. But so far I'm very skeptical of the quality of the comedy we've seen. It doesn't look worrisome enough to warrant the kind of backlash that's been going around the web (especially since a good amount of it comes from chauvinism), but it's still not on the level that I was hoping. Anyway, we'll see how the movie turns out when it hits this summer.