It’s been over five years since we saw that familiar logo with the red slash across a cartoon ghost and felt the very specific nostalgia of the Ghostbusters theme song. The 2016 reboot of the classic 1984 comedy reimagined the ghost-fighting team as all women, giving lovely stars Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Leslie Jones a chance to save the world in the same iconic jumpsuits that Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson wore decades before to confront their own ghouls. While the adaptation featured cameos from some of the original stars, it was a clear break from the traditional vision, a break which was—perhaps unsurprisingly—polarizing among the ‘84 film’s fanbase.
Now it’s 2021, and the refrain ‘who you gonna call?’ is once again set to be answered. This time, the creative production of the film is staying closer to home. Like, in the home. The new installment, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ivan Reitman, the director of the original Ghostbusters film. Additionally, Ivan Reitman will serve as producer. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is neither a reboot of the original or a sequel to the most recent installment. Instead, it will once again bring back some of the franchise’s most beloved, familiar faces while moving the concept forward into a new, distinctly contemporary narrative. From its creative team to its multigenerational audience and fanbase, viewers should expect the film to evoke an uncommonly sentimental grip.
First, Check Out the Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trailer:
If you weren’t already excited about the nostalgic superpowers of the upcoming film, you will be after watching this trailer. It’s got everything: contemporary ghouls, new mysteries, animated Stay Puft Marshmallow Men, and Finn Wolfhard fighting another paranormal entity.
What Will 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Be About?
From the looks of it, this reimagining will not be a rehashing of the same plot with different characters, and it will not carry on with any of the threads established by the 2016 reboot. Instead, the story picks up in the present day with a single mom (Carrie Coon) and her two children (Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) being evicted from their home. Without any other options, the family moves into the dilapidated farmhouse in Oklahoma that was left to them by the children’s late grandfather.
When the family gets there, they learn that the small town has been the sight of frequent, unexplained earthquakes. These earthquakes, not understood in scientific terms by anyone who studies them, pique the children’s interest, and as they are working to understand the conditions of their new home they uncover their own lineage.
It turns out, their grandfather was keeping more than just an old building for them. The children are the descendents of Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) from the original Ghostbusters crew, a group whose legacy has since fallen into obscurity. It’s up to the new generation to uncover the mysteries from the past and use the old equipment in order to face the supernatural crisis plaguing their small, Oklahoma town. The trailer strikes a nostalgic tone, weaving together audio from the original film with young, contemporary actors staged to pick up the torch of the beloved spooky comedy that is their inheritance.
Who Will Star in 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife'?
Anyone following the Stranger Things franchise will not be surprised that Finn Wolfhard was snagged for the role of the estranged grandson of a former ghostbuster, as he’s proven himself to be a natural fit among this particular brand of 80s throwback supernatural adventure. McKenna Grace, who viewers will recognize from The Haunting of Hill House and Malignant, will play Wolfhard’s sister and partner in uncovering the mysteries of their family’s past and how this information can be utilized to impact the present.
The film is also slated to feature Paul Rudd, who is another natural choice since you’d be forgiven for thinking he hasn’t aged a single year since 1984. The main cast includes other newcomers to the Ghostbusters universe, including Logan Kim, previously seen in Home Movie: The Princess Bride, a re-make of The Princess Bride filmed in separate chapters during quarantine, and Celeste O’Connor, who played Paloma Davis in Selah and the Spades.
In addition to these new children—and the forever youthful Paul Rudd—fans will be charmed with the film’s dedication to paying tribute to the story’s founding characters, actors, and themes. To this end, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will feature original cast members Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman, Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Raymond Stantz, Ernie Hudson as Dr. Winston Zeddmore, Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett, and Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz.
Since Harold Ramis, whose original character of Dr. Egon Spengler is the paternal hingepoint between the children and the legacy of the Ghostbusters, passed away in 2014, he will appear in the film through archival footage and photos that were taken from both Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). The juxtaposition of these separate representations of the original cast sets the film up to be a poetic combination of a eulogy and a new life for the team, assuring that the fate suffered by the Ghostbusters in the fictional universe of Afterlife will never happen in the real world. There is no chance of forgetting the team of janitorial-dressed heroes of the paranormal so long as there is another generation of folks to answer the call.
What Is the 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Release Date?
As any Ghostbusters fan will tell you, it’s been a long road to this release. Besides the 2016 reboot, there has been an astonishing lack of Ghostbusters content since the 80s with pitfalls along the way delaying the third sequel.
This newest iteration is a true alignment of the stars; it’s garnered the approval and sign-on of all the living original cast members, will be created in line with Reitman’s artistic vision, and will also make strides toward moving the film forward into the next generation through a diversified cast and refashioned narrative that raises questions of how we use our ancestor’s knowledge to combat widespread societal devastation.
While the film had an (unannounced) soft release at CinemaCon on August 23, 2021, it’s release date in the United States has suffered several delays due to COVID. Originally slated to come out on July 10, 2020, the film was moved first to March 5, 2021, and then to November 11, 2021, before being pushed once more to November 19, 2021. While all of these delays and setbacks were unplanned, the film’s release coinciding with Thanksgiving feels serendipitous. Focusing on themes of family, lineage, and a wholesome attempt to pay respect to a genre’s origins and founding vision, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be perfect viewing for the holiday season.
It’s important to note that the film is making its release exclusively in movie theaters, so fans that are sticking to at-home streaming platforms will have a longer wait before it’s available on the small screen.
What About the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?
Yes, the infamous Marshmallow Man is coming back.
There is a scene in the trailer that depicts Paul Rudd walking down the aisle of a grocery store and watching dozens of small, individual Stay Puft Marshmallow Men who become animated, wake up and start tearing their way out of their plastic packages. This might not be the most important element to include, but it’s also not not the most important relic to carry forward into this new imagining of the story.