In yet another thoughtless slight against Extreme Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd says he wants to expand the Ghostbusters franchise far beyond the all-female team that maybe might be the focus of Ghostbusters 3. Aykroyd was in London promoting his Crystal Head vodka, and shared his thoughts, as he is prone to do, on the future of the Ghostbusters franchise.
“It’s beyond just another sequel, a prequel, another TV show,” he said. “I’m thinking what does the whole brand mean to Sony? What does Pixar and Star Wars mean to Disney? What does Marvel mean to Fox?”
Merchandising opportunities far beyond some marshmallow-filled gut bomb, for one thing. Besides that, they also mean the chance to spin off beloved characters into an expanded universe that nerds can spend their lives obsessing over and eventually build a religion around if everything goes well. Aykroyd’s plan for this involves, essentially, making both Ghostbusters Babies and the supernatural-comedy equivalent of The Expendables.
“[W]hat’s the totality of it? The whole mythology from the beginning of their lives, the end of their lives. Ghostbusters at nine years old, Ghostbusters in high school,” he said, conspicuously failing to mention the college-aged crew of ghost-busting fools that ruled the airwaves from September to December of 1997. “The whole vehicle of Ghostbusters has to be rebuilt,” Aykroyd added. “That’s the ambitious thinking that’s going on now. Taking on the model of Marvel where we take all of the elements that are in this movie and we put them out there as different ideas.”
Bill Murray, presumably, is not on board.