Paul Feig’s upcoming Ghostbusters has just added Chris Hemsworth to its cast! Feig himself revealed the news via Twitter, confirming that the Thor star will play the team’s receptionist. He joins a cast that includes Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon as the Ghostbusters team.
In the Ivan Reitman original, Annie Potts played a similar role, appearing as Ghostbusters receptionst Janine Melnitz. Potts returned as Janine in the 1989 sequel and the character was featured prominently in the cartoon spinoff, “The Real Ghostbusters,” voiced at first by Laura Summer and later by Kath Soucie. There’s no telling quite yet if the character Hemsworth is playing will be a gender-swapped take on Janine specifically or if his character merely has the same job in this rebooted reality.
“I’m having a lot of fun playing with genres,” Feig told ComingSoon.net of the new film earlier this year, “…I love the original film, but I also just love the idea of busting ghosts and kind of paranormal warriors. I thought, ‘You know, if I could do this with the funny women I know and kind of just do a new origin story…’ I’m more interested in what would happen today. You know, you see things on TV about ghosts, but none of it’s real. What if, suddenly, something started happening? What happens when that just begins to happen to people? Also, how do they develop their technology? It’s not as fun if they’re just handed their proton packs. It’s why it’s not as fun to do a sequel. The fun is getting there.”
Hemsworth, who recently reprised his Thor role for Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, can next be seen in the road trip comedy sequel/reboot Vacation, set to hit theaters July 29.
Ghostbusters will be entering production shortly, targeting a July 22, 2016 release. Check back for additional updates as they become available!
