I shudder to think of the notion that we’re going to have to spend the next year essentially rehashing the great cultural Ghostbusters war. Of course, if we could have a different outcome in 2020 then we did in 2016, specifically by electing whomever the Democrats run for president this time out, that would be swell, but I digress. I totally understand why Leslie Jones is as upset as she is about Sony’s new plans for Jason Reitman-directed Ghostbusters movie. However the movie turns out, it’s hard not to view the film as a glorified rebuttal of the 2016 reboot and a relative victory for the very worst Ghostbusters fans that turned the Paul Feig-directed “all lady” reboot into a giant online talking point. That’s especially true as, being a black woman daring to exist online, Jones arguably got the worst of it.

But if this movie is able to have its cake (please the fans) and eat it too (offer something that isn’t four middle-aged dudes making jokes and busting ghosts), then it may actually be a net positive for the Kristen Wiig/Melissa McCarthy/Leslie Jones/Kate McKinnon sci-fi comedy. I wrote last month about how Aquaman‘s blow-out success allowed Zack Snyder’s divisive Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to no longer bear the burden of justifying an entire cinematic universe and could now be judged, warts and all, as a stand-alone superhero opera that it otherwise would have been. To the extent that both movies came to define the cinematic online culture war in 2016, it is ironic that both films faltered (relatively speaking) because the studios released an inferior cut in theaters and kept the vastly superior version for the Blu-Ray.

Like Batman v Superman (which earned $873 million worldwide), Ghostbusters was tagged as a franchise-imperiling flop despite selling quite a few tickets. Ghostbusters was the biggest-grossing live-action comedy of 2016, give or take the more superhero-y Deadpool, earning $126 million domestic and $229m worldwide. That was more than (offhand) Bad Moms, Central Intelligence and Neighbors 2. The problem is that, partially due to prior development costs, IP expenses and whatever did or didn’t happen on set, the film cost an absurd $144m to produce. It looks great, but Sony was banking on an overseas interest in the Ghostbusters brand that wasn’t there. Had its $126m domestic gross led to a standard 35/65 domestic/overseas split, then it would have earned $360m and we’d probably have gotten a sequel. But it lost $70m for Sony and friends, making a sequel absolutely out-of-the-question.

After Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Creed and Jurassic World, going the “legacy sequel” route with Ghostbusters was the obvious play. It’s not a matter of rebuking the last Ghostbusters movie, but rather because that film was a by-itself-reboot (which, Sony’s relative success with Casino Royale and Amazing Spider-Man aside, may have been its biggest mistake), it cannot exist in the same universe as Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Sure, they could retcon the last film’s continuity, but making a new Ghostbusters 3 isn’t about the last Ghostbusters flopping (or the cultural sexism in play). It’s about the The Force Awakens showing Hollywood that the legacy sequel was a much smarter play than the straight-up reboot. Absent the toxic fanbase (as opposed to the folks who just didn’t like the movie), a failed reboot of Ghostbusters is little different than Sony’s failed reboot/remake of Robocop and Total Recall.

But, again, that Sony is making a new Ghostbusters sequel, one that will apparently feature four young kids (two boys and two girls) who get into an adventure that may or may not involve the original cast members (I assume Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson are showing up for sure), isn’t about erasing the last movie from existence. Fun fact: A reboot can’t do that any more than a bad movie adaptation can erase a good book or a fictionalized movie can retroactively change the real history (or limit moviegoers’ access to learning about the true story behind the “true story”). Even after Spider-Man: Homecoming, there are folks who still watch and enjoy The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Even though Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo, fans and moviegoers still watch and enjoy The Incredible Hulk.

Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins didn’t erase Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s respective Batman movies. If anything, the “redemption” of the character through Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy has allowed folks to better enjoy Schumacher’s campier installments (especially Batman Forever) on their own merits. People still watch Goldfinger even after Casino Royale retconned the previous 44-years of James Bond movies. Fans can still access and watch both Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek Beyond. No matter how much money Halloween earned last year ($159 million domestic and $253m worldwide), fans and audiences will still watch and enjoy not just the previous Halloween sequels but also the two Rob Zombie remake flicks (especially his growing-in-esteem Halloween II). Ghostbusters 3 will not make Ghostbusters 2016 disappear any more than Ghostbusters 2016 Thanos-snapped your Blu-ray of Ghostbusters 1984 into oblivion.

Ghostbusters 3 (spoiler: Oscar is evil and he kills Peter Venkman) isn’t about erasing the last reboot or retroactively validating the most toxic of toxic “Ghostbros.” I would have liked to have seen a sequel to the reboot. But movies that lose $70 million (while not being very leggy) don’t tend to get sequels. Absent its responsibility of maintaining the IP or living up to the hype (or justifying the online hate), Paul Feig and Katie Dippold’s Ghostbusters can exist as its own movie and its own thing both for folks who didn’t like it and folks who loved the hell out of it. Like Batman v Superman, the 2016 Ghostbusters can now be enjoyed (or disliked) via its stand-alone merits as a movie, rather than being judged on how it helped or hurt the brand or helped/hurt a would-be cinematic universe.

In that sense, this new sequel isn’t a sword being wielded against the controversial female-ensemble sci-fi comedy, but a shield that will allow it to just be a funny sci-fi comedy that happens to be about new Ghostbusters.

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