Summary

• Janine Melnitz finally becomes an official Ghostbuster in Frozen Empire, getting her own uniform and fighting alongside the O.G. team.
• While familiar faces return, Frozen Empire offers significant character development for Janine, bringing her sardonic attitude to the forefront.
• Although not the first project to show Janine as a Ghostbuster, Frozen Empire is special in giving her her own uniform and fighting role.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire isn’t a great movie (at all), but it does right by one of my favorite characters from the franchise – Janine Melnitz – by finally making her a Ghostbuster. Following on from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Frozen Empire brings Egon’s estranged family back to New York to forces with the O.G. Ghostbusters team. When a nefarious ghost named Garraka freezes over the entire city and threatens to plunge the world into a new ice age, Ghostbusters old and new come together to fight back.

While Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully and Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett are nowhere to be seen, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire brings back plenty of familiar faces. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson all reprise their roles as O.G. Ghostbusters and William Atherton’s Walter Peck, now the Mayor of New York, is continuing to cause trouble for them. But it’s Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz who gets the most significant character development in the new sequel.

Frozen Empire Makes Janine An Official Ghostbuster At Last

It's about time Janine became a Ghostbuster

When Janine was first introduced in the original Ghostbusters movie, she was the team’s secretary. She answered the Ghostbusters’ phone calls in a droll, sarcastic tone and she was consistently rude to all their potential customers. This was a fun running gag – and Potts did a great job with Janine’s sardonic attitude – but it would’ve been disappointing if Janine was still organizing their calendar and answering their phones after all these years. Instead, Frozen Empire finally makes Janine an official Ghostbuster with her own uniform and everything.

In the final battle of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Phoebe and the new Ghostbusters fight alongside Janine and the O.G. Ghostbusters to vanquish Garraka from New York. Although I didn’t love the movie as a whole, it did warm my heart to see Phoebe’s family helping her with the proton pack, and I got a flutter of nostalgia when I saw Murray, Aykroyd, and Hudson in their old uniforms. But there was something even more special about seeing Janine in a jumpsuit, fighting alongside the guys she used to answer the phone for.

Janine's Ghostbusting Experience Began Outside Of The Movies

Frozen Empire wasn't the first Ghostbusters project to put Janine in a uniform

While Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was the first time fans got to see Janine as a Ghostbuster in live-action, it wasn’t the first Ghostbusters project to put her in a beige jumpsuit. Janine first picked up a proton pack and became a Ghostbuster in the animated TV shows The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. But she always had to borrow a uniform from her fellow Ghostbusters; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was the first one to give her her own uniform.