Ghostbusters 3 (possibly officially titled Ghostbusters: Afterlife) is shaping up to be everything fans of the franchise could want. Jason Reitman is approaching the original two films with reverence but also striking out in a fresh direction, while the official synopsis explains that the story will centre on a family who moves back to a small town “where they learn more about who they are.”
This family will be a new group of characters, but we’ve known for a while that most of the original cast is returning, too. Dan Aykroyd will be playing Ray Stantz, Sigourney Weaver is back as Dana Barrett, Ernie Hudson’s reprising his role as Winston Zeddemore, Annie Potts is once again Janine Melnitz and – yes – Bill Murray will definitely be playing Peter Venkman.
That last one must have taken some serious negotiating. Murray has famously been reluctant to return to his biggest role ever, arguing that “no one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts.” The confirmation came via Aykroyd’s recent appearance on The Greg Hill Show though, where he said the following:
“Jason Reitman wrote a beautiful, heartfelt script that takes the DNA from the first two movies and hands the legacy off to a new generation of stars and characters. And we’ve shot our part – myself, [Bill] Murray, Sigourney [Weaver], and Annie Potts. It was really exciting working on this new idea. It’s gonna be scary, it’s gonna be thought-provoking, it’s gonna be heartfelt. We’ll recognize [the late Harold Ramis] in this film in some way.”
Right now, we don’t know how much the original cast will feature in the movie, but Aykroyd saying that “we’ve shot our part” indicates to me that they may not feature too heavily in the finished product. My bet is that Stantz has retired to this small town and the barn in the teaser trailer that’s housing Ecto-1 is most likely on his property. If the new characters are there to seek him out, what results could be an explosion of paranormal activity. And who you gonna call…?
These classic characters mean a lot to people, and simply getting some closure to their post-Ghostbusters 2 stories will be deeply satisfying. And who knows, if Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray are back, maybe they got their happy ending together, after all?
