After Chris Rock reminded everyone of just how white Hollywood is, filmmakers may feel the pressure to hire more women and minorities. But better hiring practices don’t mean women and minorities will be better represented onscreen. In director Paul Feig’s remake of Ghostbusters, Leslie Jones plays a black female Ghostbuster—but in the trailer, her character is also the only one who isn’t a scientist.
Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon play a team of elite scientists (“My name is Erin Gilbert, doctor of particle physics,” Wiig tells an unfriendly levitating ghost) who want to save the city from the supernatural. Jones, on the other hand, plays an MTA employee who brings to the team a crack knowledge of New York City. (“And I can borrow a car from my uncle!” she adds.)
It’s just the trailer—and the movie may reveal that Jones holds a PhD, just like her fellow ghost-stomping crime-fighters, as pop culture site The Mary Sue Notes. Jones herself has defended her character’s role on Twitter.
But it’s worth noting that things weren’t that different in the original movie—Ernie Hudson, who played a Ghostbuster 30 years ago, opened up to Entertainment Weekly about how small his role was compared to the other three main characters.