We’re less than three months out from the day when Paul Feig’s new Ghostbusters will arrive in theaters, in all its Slimer-fighting, Ecto Cooler-slamming glory. And while non-trailer plot details on the movie have been kept pretty tight, Feig recently dropped some info on what the evil force that Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Kristen Wiig will battle will be. And in a development that won’t be wholly surprising to anyone who’s been following online coverage of the movie over the last few years, it turns out that the villain in the all-female Ghostbusters is nerds. Angry, lonely nerds.
Specifically, a nerd, named Rowan, played by former SNL writer Neil Casey. According to Feig—who was talking to Empire for a big feature the magazine is running on the upcoming movie this week—Rowan is an “ultimate loner” who “wants to trap ghosts, but for a different purpose.” (Presumably, so that he has someone who can feign sympathy as he rants about his beloved childhood franchises being ruined.) One of the movie’s screenwriters, Kate Dippold, also chimed in on the character, telling Cinema Blend that he’s a “very smart genius type,” who’s apparently set up as a villainous foil to the ghost-busting team, and who probably doesn’t have a problem with ghosts, per se; it’s just that he thinks that they should go ahead and stay in their proper place.
Also, it’s worth noting that “Rowan” was the name attached to the goofy-looking ghost from the Ghostbusters playset that was being shown around back in February. That suggests that Casey’s character might actually be a ghost himself, or at least eventually end up as dead as the childhoods of the angry fans who somehow drag themselves to go to see Feig’s new film.