Director Paul Feig has a fairly straightforward answer for Ghostbusters fans wondering why he's rebooting the comedy franchise rather than simply making a sequel.

"I have too much respect for the original one [to do a sequel]," he told Empire magazine (via Comic Book Movie). "There's also the feeling that once the world knows ghosts and has seen them busted on such a large scale, they run the risk of becoming pedestrian. There's something fun about introducing our world, which has never seen ghosts to the phenomenon of ghosts. I love origin stories and to introduce new characters."

Feig once again addressed criticism of a female-dominated cast -- "I'm just more interested in the idea of lady Ghostbusters" -- before moving on to the tone he and co-writer Katie Dipold hope to achieve.

"I want ours to be scarier than the original, to be quite honest," he said. "Katie Dipold and I are so focused on wanting to do scary comedy. We don't want to hold back."

Scarier, yes, but still PG-13.

"The reason I do a lot of R-Rated comedies is that you want a movie to feel honest," he said. "But the Ghostbusters world doesn't need that level of swearing."