Last night Paul Feig announced two major pieces of information about the upcoming all-female Ghostbusters reboot.

Firstly, he announced the release date - July 22nd, 2016.

That tells us that they're almost definitely starting production in the next couple of weeks, if not days.

The second piece of information was the cast. SNL alums Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon and Mike and Molly's Melissa McCarthy were announced as the four Ghostbusters.

As to whether Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd will be involved, that's another story.

So, let's talk about the cast.

 

KRISTEN WIIG

Known for: Bridesmaids, The Skeleton Twins, SNL, Anchorman 2

Arguably the most well-known of the four Ghostbusters, Wiig has a solid track record with scoring with the box office and big with critics. Bridesmaids was universally acclaimed and Skeleton Twins was, for us, massively overlooked at this year's Oscars. We're guessing she's going to be the leader, but nothing's been confirmed on the specifics. Good casting? Yeah, we think so.

 

MELISSA McCARTHY

Known for: Mike and Molly, The Heat, Tammy, St. Vincent

Melissa McCarthy is comedic marmite. Some love her, some hate her. We liked last year's The Heat with Sandra Bullock, also directed by Paul Feig. Tammy was a bit of a flop, commercially and critically, but she's rebounded quickly with Oscar hopeful St. Vincent. Again, she's got solid comic credentials - they all have, in fairness - so she seems like a strong casting.

 

LESLIE JONES

Known for: Top Five, SNL, Workaholics

Leslie Jones has been a staff writer on SNL for several years, as well as performing on the long-running show. It's likely she met Wiig during her stint there. However, Jones' stand-up routine is particularly funny and draws comparisons to Richard Pryor so that's always good. Don't be surprised if she's everywhere six months after Ghostbusters is released. Good casting? From what we've seen on her work on this side of the pond, she looks pretty decent. The Richard Pryor comparisons stand in her favour so, yeah, thumbs up.

 

KATE McKINNON

Known for: The Venture Bros., SNL, Robotomy

Again, another SNL alum, Kate McKinnon may be more familiar to audiences by her voice. She's done voice-acting in cult comedy cartoon The Venture Bros. on Adult Swim. Her work on SNL has been pretty great and she's really got Justin Bieber's mannerisms down so that's something. She's often the funniest thing in Venture Bros. and any of the random skits she's done on SNL, she's always been funny. So, yeah, good casting in our opinion.

 

Overall, our thumbs are up across the board. We had hopes that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would have played a role in this iteration, but that's not to be. They may still yet, although it won't be as the central cast as we had hoped.

So, when there's something strange in the neighbourhood, who are we gonna call? Any of these!