Fans of the original Ghostbusters movies all got very excited when it was announced that a new movie, which would take place within the original franchise continuity, was on the way. Now, those fans are going to be even more excited as Sigourney Weaver has now confirmed that she'll be in the new movie, reprising her role as Dana Barrett. Not only that, she also says that Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray are coming back with her.
The reveal comes as part of an extensive profile in Parade. Weaver is unsurprisingly mum on details, but she does confirm that she, Aykroyd, and Murray, will all be back and that she will be playing the same role she did in the first two Ghostbusters films.
While we knew the new movie would be taking place within the same universe as the original movies, exactly what that meant for the original cast was far from clear.
The focus characters of the new movie will be teenagers, including the likes of McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard. It stands to reason that these new characters will connect to the original characters in some way, but we don't know how that will work at this point.
Certainly the most surprising name on the returning list is Bill Murray. While the actor had recently made comments that made it sound like he was open to appearing in the new film, the word was that Murray's lack of interest in a third film was always one of the major reasons such a movie never materialized back in the 90s.
Aykroyd was one of the original actors who was as confirmed as anybody has been to this point. He's been intimately involved in the franchise from the beginning and was even a producer of the recent reboot movie. It seemed quite likely he would be appearing.
All three of these actors, Bill Murray, Dan Ayroyd, and Sigourney Weaver, made cameo appearances in the Ghostbusters reboot from a couple years ago. While it's certainly possible that could be all we're going to get this time around, Weaver's comments to Parade imply that she'll actually be appearing on screen with her old co-stars, which would make it more likely these roles are more substantial, as Weaver says...
It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!
While pretty much everybody from the previous Ghostbusters films appeared in the reboot, they all showed up in separate scenes and so never worked together. It appears that in the new movie that they'll actually be reunited.
There's a Ghostbusters fan event taking place in Southern CA this weekend and there's a decent chance that some news regarding the new movie will be revealed there. Director Jason Reitman will be in attendance and one can be sure fans will have a lot of questions for him. We could, if nothing else, get official confirmation of these casting decisions. Hopefully poor Ernie Hudson won't be left out.
