As a lifelong Ghostbusters fan, I was delighted to see the latest film in the storied franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in theaters. And as a queer person, I was doubly thrilled to see the makings of a queer romance between ghostbuster Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and teenage ghost Melody (Emily Alyn Lind).
While their relationship remains subtextual, obvious signs point to the characters’ queerness. From their meet-cute to their almost kiss, Frozen Empire leaves their relationship open to interpretation. LGBTQ+ folks have a long and storied legacy of finding queer subtext in, well, almost anything. And Frozen Empire doesn’t disappoint. At one point, Phoebe extracts her soul from her body just to share a plane with Melody. And I thought the only queer ghostbuster we’d ever get is Kate McKinnon’s Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.
Lind discussed Melody and Phoebe’s relationship in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, saying:
“Phoebe and Melody are cut from the same cloth in a lot of ways. They’re both outsiders in their own ways. They’re both old souls, figuratively and literally. And since physical touch was off the table, that can get pretty irritating in the beginning of any relationship. So [Phoebe] just wanted to be able to be close to this person. Your question is basically, “Is this a romantic relationship or a friendship?” and a lot of people are asking that. But the beauty of this movie is that it’s just two souls connecting. The fact that they literally can’t touch is a metaphor for their deeper soul connection that defies labels.”
She continued,
“There’s elements to it that do feel like romantic gestures, and while Mckenna is younger than me [in real life], these characters are still two kids in a lot of ways. They’re outsiders who feel different and like they’re not heard. And now they’re connecting on this grandiose level in two different dimensional planes, and they’re just trying to figure out this world together. So I like that we didn’t define it as one thing or another. Sometimes, when people do that, it ruins it. It’s too concrete and absolute, and they’re so not absolute as characters.”
Gay ghostbusters AND gay ghosts? I’m here for all of it.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is currently playing in theaters.
(featured image: Shareif Ziyadat/FilmMagic)
