The Ghostbusters franchise has, since its first film in 1984, earned more than $1.1 billion at the global box office. While 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire didn’t prove to be a huge hit, the co-writer and star of the first two Ghostbusters movies is teasing a bright future for the iconic sci-fi comedy franchise.
Dan Aykroyd, who memorably played original Ghostbuster, Ray Stantz, and wrote the first two films with Harold Ramis, recently appeared on the Talking Strange podcast. Per MovieWeb, the Saturday Night Live alum said fans shouldn’t rule out the possibility of more Ghostbusters action in the future.
“Well, yeah, we sure could use pink slime at any time,” Aykroyd said when asked about whether audiences would see more of the flight-suit-wearing crew. “We’ll see what we do as far as the next Ghostbusters feature, and there will be one,” he confirmed. “It’s just what avenue we’re going to take. I think that, given creative people in the world we’re living in today, how can you not factor in some of what we’re looking at in terms of the human species’ execrable behavior?” he added.
Aykroyd continued, “That may be looked at. Maybe it manifests itself in some kind of an evil formation. Not sure, you know, Jason (Reitman) is working with the creative crew there at Ghost Corps out there in Los Angeles. And I’ll be very interested to see what emerges.”
The late Ivan Reitman directed both 1984’s Ghostbusters and 1989’s Ghostbusters II. His son, Jason Reitman, directed and co-wrote Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) with Gil Kenan. Reitman also co-wrote 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire with Kenan, who directed the movie. Reitman is also developing a new Ghostbusters animated series alongside Kenan, which has been given the green light at Netflix.
Aykroyd Teases Upcoming Animated Ghostbusters Series
GhostbustersColumbia Pictures
Updates on the still-unnamed animated series have been few and far between, with the latest coming in August 2024. At that time, news dropped that the series was moving forward at Netflix after being in development since 2022. At that time, it was said that the series would be tonally similar to Afterlife and Frozen Empire and would be a 3D animated series, unlike the 1980s animated show, The Real Ghostbusters, which was made with 2D animation. It was also revealed that Elliott Kalan (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Mystery Science Theater 3000) was named showrunner for the new series. The show is coming from Sony Pictures Animation and will be executive-produced by Reitman and Kenan under the Ghost Corps. Inc. banner.
In the podcast interview, Aykroyd commented on the upcoming animated show, saying, “We are doing a really neat animated Ghostbusters. It’ll be coming out quite soon. The characters and the whole take and the look of Manhattan is really exciting. So, I think maybe there’s an opportunity there for those writers to address some of the issues that we need to heal and move on with our lives.”
Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II will be airing as part of AMC Network’s “Best Christmas Ever” on Nov. 29.
Release Date
June 8, 1984
Runtime
105 Minutes
Director
Ivan Reitman
Writers
Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis
