On the Mytholigization of Things
Just saw the trailer for the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot/sequel, and I noticed something about the way it handles props.
We've been seeing reboots and distant sequels for a long time now, and there's a kind of casting stunt they tend to pull where they bring in someone from the original as a way to hook old fans and hopefully bring them along for the new product. One that stands out for me is the 2009 Star Trek reboot, which promoted Leonard Nimoy as a cameo, and then gave him an extended role in the film as a way to satisfy hardcore fans.
Along the way, something has shifted slightly. In the trailers for The Force Awakens, the Milennium Falcon gets the same kind of stunt billing as the likes of Harrison Ford. Granted, it got that kind of billing in trailers during the original trilogy, but viewers expected to see it. Here, its introduction is presented as a treat for the audience, in the same way that having returning characters is. Simply, the object is treated the same as a character.
This trailer for the new Ghostbusters film does the same with the ghost trap and ECTO-1 (and to a lesser extent the proton packs), showing these items with reverence and giving prominence to scenes that show them in use. By contrast, the actors from the original films don't appear at all. There's a voice-over of Bill Murray from the first film, but no visuals or signs that they appear in the movie at all. I fully expect at least one of them to show up for at least a cameo, but the trailer doesn't focus on that kind of stunt. The props get higher placement.
I think this change of focus has a lot to do with the passage of time. Speaking generally about reboots, the original iconic actors are pretty old on average, and many have died. Yet due to our current driving nostalgia, the works they made are in as much demand as they once were. So an easy solution is to focus on the items they used instead of the people, and hand those items over to a new generation.
There's also a major impetus from merchandizing. The Ghostbusters' iconic props were largely made for toyetic purposes in the first place, and they can serve that same purpose again without significant changes in design. In so doing, they potentially draw the focus of the story away from actual people.