One of the biggest questions surrounding the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife was how much the legacy cast members would factor into the story. Paul Feig’s much-maligned 2016 reboot brought back many of the franchise’s familiar faces, but made the strange narrative decision to cast every single one of them in brand new roles in attempt to establish that his take on the team wasn’t connected to the first two installments.
That call was one of many that saw the last Ghostbusters movie face incredible backlash, but now we’re only six months away from the latest attempt to reinvent the series. Ghostbusters: Afterlife hails from Jason Reitman, who is more than familiar with the source material as the son of original director Ivan, and the filmmaker looks set to put a fresh spin on a brand that’s been around since 1984.
The first trailer introduced us to the new set of characters that will power the story, and was heavy on familiar iconography as most nostalgia-driven sequels are. We’ve known for a while now that several members of the original Ghostbusters family would be appearing, but as always, there were question marks surrounding the involvement of Bill Murray.
The notoriously eccentric actor doesn’t have an agent or even a cell phone, and has a well-deserved reputation for being incredibly difficult to track down and sign up for a project. The 69 year-old was spotted having dinner with the cast and crew of Afterlife during shooting, but Murray has now officially been confirmed as part of the cast, something that We Got This Covered told you was the case months ago.
In a rare interview, the king of Zombieland cameos seemed confident in Afterlife, while even offering up some vague hints on the story, saying:
“Well, we are a man down. That’s the deal. And that’s the story we’re telling, that’s the story they’ve written. The script is good, it’s got lots of emotion in it. It’s got lots of family in it, with through lines that are really interesting. It’s gonna work.”
It was virtually a guarantee that Murray was going to appear in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but it remains good news to finally have it made official after months of speculation. Hopefully the long-delayed follow-up to Ghostbusters II doesn’t turn out to be anywhere near as controversial as the last attempt to bring the team to the big screen.