New Ghostbusters Character Details Surface, As Does A Bill Murray Character

Well, it’s either a very exciting or very frightening time to be a Ghostbusters fan. On the one hand, we now have a pretty solid cast list for the all-female Ghostbusters reboot. On the other hand…well, the phrase “a Ghostbusters reboot” pretty much says it all. But as this film is definitely happening now, it’s time to start digging into this cast list and finding out who (or what) everyone is playing.

There are four main parts on offer here, each of them differing in a big way from the original two films. Here’s the breakdown (via The Playlist):

• Erin Gabler is an academic on the tenure track at Columbia. Her former colleague and co-author is…
• Abby Bergman, who’s more on the pop parapsychology side of things, and pursues ghosts for a living.
• Jillian is Abby’s ghost hunting partner.
• Patty is an MTA employee who comes across the main ghost.

OK, so the idea is not as far away from the original as we might suppose: we still have Columbia professors, a nod to the “pop parapsychology” that Venkman gets into in Ghostbusters 2, and a final “working-class” partner. There is, as yet, no indication as to who will be playing what, but with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones all set for parts, you can probably make some educated guesses.

The other little piece of news coming on the Ghostbusters front is director Paul Feig’s earnest hope that he can convince Bill Murray to take on a role. The twist? It’s not Peter Venkman. Rather, Murray is being sought to play Martin Heiss, “a professional supernatural debunker,” who goes after the women when they post footage online. While Murray has been very positive about an all-female Ghostbusters, he has expressed no interest in returning to the franchise as yet. Still, we can always hope. There is also word that Peter Dinklage might be tapped to play “a creepy mechanical genius.” Sounds interesting.

While we can be certain to hear more about Ghostbusters in the not-too-distant future, there’s certainly a lot to think about right now. I can only hope that this is all good news for the future of the franchise.