Initially, when Paul Feig’s all-female version of Ghostbusters was announced, Dan Aykroyd seemed just slightly disappointed. The original creator of the franchise said, “I’ve got three daughters, so I’m all for female empowerment,” but his own long-gestating plan for a third Ghostbusters film had to take a back seat. “Let’s get this one made and that will reinvigorate the franchise and then we’ll go on to maybe doing a more conventional third sequel as we were planning and another idea I have for it,” he said last February. But while Aykroyd was never against the movie, after having seen a screening he’s now thrown his full support behind Feig and the women in the cast.

Aykroyd wrote on Facebook, “As originator of the original: Saw test screening of new movie. Apart from brilliant, genuine performances from the cast both female and male, it has more laughs and more scares than the first 2 films plus Bill Murray is in it! As one of millions of man-fans and Ray Stantz, I’m paying to see that and bringing all my friends!”

Murray—who has been very vocal in his support of the film—isn’t the only original cast member to have cameo. Murray is also in there as well as Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and even Ernie Hudson—who originally called the project “a bad idea”—is on board.

It’s not as if the new Ghostbusters film needs a blessing from the old guard in order to legitimize it, but it’s possible approval from Aykroyd, Murray, etc. will do something to quiet the knee-jerk negative reaction to the female reboot we’ve seen from certain fans of the original. (Feig has called the pushback “some of the most vile, misogynistic shit I’ve ever seen in my life.”) And while Ayroyd may have a vested interest in Feig’s film doing well—remember he’s got that “conventional” sequel still to make—his support means a lot to a film that has been so unfairly written off.