The 2016 reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ was not a hit when it arrived in theaters, but since then, it has developed a bit of a cult following. The film, directed by Paul Feig, flipped the gender of the main cast, with an all-female Ghostbusters team, and along those lines, their receptionist, played by Annie Potts in the original ’80s movies, was played by Chris Hemsworth. This part, Kevin Beckman, was a bit of a one-note joke– a dumb himbo– and because of that, Hemsworth almost walked away from the film at the last minute.
In an interview with Variety, he discussed his experience, saying:
“The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out. Three or four weeks prior, Paul said to me, ‘I’m going to write up the character. Don’t worry.’ And then I got the script and nothing had changed.”
“I was really scared walking onto that set. I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.”
Hemsworth first gained notice for action roles, Captain George Kirk in ‘Star Trek’, and Thor in the Marvel Studios franchise. But after his experience making ‘Ghostbusters’, he was able to return to the Marvel movies with a new comedic spin on Thor, the once-stodgy God of Thunder. This take was a hit with fans, with ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ being the most popular entry in that series, and eventually leading to Thor being perhaps the comedic highlight of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
RELATED: Chris Hemsworth Is Open To Returning As Thor
Sony, meanwhile, is moving forward with another reboot of ‘Ghostbusters‘ that is not connected to the 2016 film, which is now viewed as a one-off outlier. Hemsworth would have been up for reuniting with his movie’s cast– Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Kristen Wiig– but blames the very loud online backlash for killing this franchise before it really got a chance to get going.
“That whole period I was like, ‘What ownership do you guys have over those characters?’ Oh, you watched the film, therefore you should have a say over where it goes? I thought it was very unfortunate and kind of disappointing.”
Hemsworth is having a busy summer. He got the party started with the record-smashing ‘Avengers: Endgame’, and will return in another comedic reboot, ‘Men in Black: International’, as Agent H on June 14th.
Would you have liked to have seen Hemsworth return as Kevin in another ‘Ghostbusters’? Or is ‘Ghostbusters” loss ‘Men in Black’s gain?
