Last night, it was announced that a new Ghostbusters movie is on the way, but rather than being a sequel to the 2016 reboot, it will be set in the same continuity as the original movies. Less than a day later, the first trailer for this new project has been released, teasing both the scarier elements of the Ghostbusters movies and how we're returning to the world where the art of busting ghosts was first perfected. Check it out!
Since we're years off from seeing this new Ghostbusters movie, it was to be expected that this trailer from Entertainment Weekly wouldn't feature any actual footage that will be in the finalized cut, but this preview does set the mood quite well. Off in the distance, someone is working on a piece of machinery on a spooky night. When we get closer to the barn, pieces of the original Ghostbusters score start to play, and if you look closely, you'll see a little bit of ectoplasm on a fence, signifying that there is indeed something strange in the neighborhood.
Finally, once we're inside the barn, that device finally powers up, and the energy discharge indicates it's a proton pack, what the Ghostbusters use to contain their supernatural targets. Arguably more important, though, is what's underneath that tarp: the Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters' infamous vehicle. But clearly it's seen better days, so why has it been languishing in that barn? And who was working on the proton pack off-camera? Is it one of the original Ghostbusters members? Those are questions that won't be answered for a while, but at least fans of the franchise have this video to enjoy in the interim period.
If this Ghostbusters trailer is indeed hinting at the plot and not simply a video meant to get fans excited, then it indicates that the Ghostbusters team has been inactive for a long time. Of course, we saw a new team of Ghostbusters active in the present day just a few years ago, but that was in a different universe. As far as the original Ghostbusters universe is concerned, and if you don't count other media material (like the 2009 video game), we haven't seen individuals hunting down supernatural entities since 1989's Ghostbusters II. Whatever's this next Ghostbusters movie ends up being about, presumably there will be some mention of what's happened in the three decades since we last saw Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore.
Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, director of the first two Ghostbusters movies, is directing the new Ghostbusters movie and co-wrote the script with Monster House director Gil Kenan. The plan is for production to begin later this year so it will be ready for release in summer 2020. No official plot details have been revealed yet, and it remains to be seen if Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd or Ernie Hudson will reprise their respective roles (Harold Ramis passed away in 2014). That said, Ivan Reitman, who's producing the new Ghostbusters movie, has described it as a "passing of the torch," and it's been reported that the four main protagonists will be teenagers, two boys and two girls.
Keep checking in with CinemaBlend for updates on how this new Ghostbusters movie is coming along. And this isn't the only cinematic project for the franchise to look forward to, as that animated Ghostbusters movie is still in the works.
