For the past week, the United States has been embroiled in controversy over the killing of George Floyd at the hand of police officers, sparking protests all over the nation. With ongoing debate around police brutality and systematic racism in the country, the annual Ghostbusters Day has be canceled out of respect.
This annual celebration, held every June 8th, commemorates the original Ghostbuster’s release date back in 1984. The Ghostbusters franchise has spawned one sequel, an animated series, an all-female reboot, a comic book continuation and numerous video games, with the 2009 game being an official sequel to the first two movies. A second sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was scheduled to be released this July, but got delayed to 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It will also ignore the events of the reboot, which was moderately well received but underperformed at the box office and a source of internet controversy.
#GhostbustersDay pic.twitter.com/lQCrVwTIY5
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 4, 2020
The official Ghostbusters Twitter account yesterday that they will postpone the event due to the Black Lives Matters protests, understanding their importance to promote greater systematic change in the United States. There’s no current date for when the event will be held, but this is a smart move by the franchise to recognize that there are larger issues to worry about than movies. And this one you can’t simply blast with a proton pack.