Dan Aykroyd says Bill Murray is coming back for the next Ghostbusters, for whatever that's worth
Look, no one is calling Dan Aykroyd a liar, okay? It’s just that the former SNL star can sometimes be a little, uh, enthusiastic when it comes to certain topics, especially as it relates to Ghostbusters, a property he sometimes approaches as though it were a semi-real documentary about his actual life, and not a movie franchise where New York academics use an NES Advantage controller to take a joyride with Lady Liberty herself.
All of which is to say that, when Aykroyd announced on an episode of The Greg Hill Show this week that his old pal Billy Murray will absolutely, definitely, golly gee, no fooling show up as Dr. Peter Venkman in Jason Reitman’s upcoming Ghostbusters sequel, it’s difficult not to approach the news with a level of skepticism that might be best described as “Person telling you about the healing powers of crystal skulls (and the vodka contained within)”-esque. Sure, Murray has dallied with returns to the franchise in the past—both in the 2009 Ghostbusters video game, which prominently starred all four members of the original film’s cast, and in 2016's Ghostbusters reboot, where he had a brief cameo—but he has also generally given off an “Ugh, this again?” vibe when the subject is typically broached.
It doesn’t help that it’s still not clear what, exactly, Reitman’s movie is going to be about, although it’s being positioned as a direct sequel to Ghostbusters 2. Aykroyd described it in the same interview as “a beautiful, heartfelt script that takes the real DNA from the first two movies and transfers that directly to the third, the next generation. It hands the legacy off to a new generation of stars, and players, and actors, and characters.” Which we can’t help but point out that Paul Feig’s movie also did, but okay, whatever, we’re moving on, even though you will never get us to stop thinking about Kate McKinnon blowing the shit out of a whole bunch of ghosts.
Anyway, Murray has, in typical fashion, yet to comment on the news (although it’s worth noting that Sigourney Weaver has also suggested he’s on board.) We’re sure he’ll be absolutely delighted to hear that his “Sure, Dan, I guess busy gotta go” texts have now been translated into the full-throated vote of approval for the movie that they were clearly intended to be.