Revered Spengler saga heads to New York for Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel

Because busting makes everyone feel good, there's also a new Ghostbusters animated movie on the way

Revered Spengler saga heads to New York for Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel
Muncher Photo: Sony

Ghostbusters movies are like poetry; they rhyme. Every stanza rhymes with the last one, with the demons of one generation haunting the next. It was true of the Skywalkers, and now, it’s true of the Spenglers, one of the seminal families of fantasy and science fiction. And the Spengler saga will continue just as Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd intended for their little comedy about a team of ghost exterminators for whom busting feels good.

Fans hear echoes of the past throughout the extended Ghostbusters Cinematic Universe (GCU). In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the daughter and granddaughter of deadbeat dad Egon Spangler maintain the family legacy by fighting whatever Ghostbusters reference randomly asserts itself upon the plot. And because nothing ends and all stories must continue until they’re simply repeating lines and beats from what came before in a never-ending feedback loop designed to make viewers happy that they recognized something, more Ghostbusters sequels and spin-offs are on the way.

Yesterday was apparently Ghostbusters Day, one of those holidays we assume Hallmark created to sell greeting cards and announce Ghostbusters stuff. To cap off the day, commemorated by a keynote address during which Sony rattled off upcoming Ghostbusters ephemera, Afterlife director Jason Reitman announced that the live-action sequel has a codename: “Firehouse.”

The Firehouse looms large in Ghostbusters. Not only was it the setting for the first two Ghostbusters movies, but also, it was one of the franchise’s most popular toys. “We’re writing another movie. Tonight, we’re going to share the code name for the next chapter in the Spengler family story,” Reitman said. “The last time we saw Ecto-1, it was driving back into Manhattan: the home of Ghostbusters. That’s where our story begins. The code name is FIREHOUSE.” So that explains the baffling final shot from Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Reitman previously took the Spenglers out of their NYC comfort zone because he had a vision of the Ecto-1 driving in a cornfield. So it makes sense that they would return home, seeing as the New York energy was a big part of the original movie’s success—also, filling the emptiest town in Oklahoma with Easter eggs didn’t add much to the series.

There will also be a new Ghostbusters animated movie, so we can go deeper into that Ivo Shandor-based mythology. There’s even less information on that one, but we assume it will connect to the Ghostbusters animated series announced yesterday.

So happy belated Ghostbusters Day! There’s a ton of Ghostbusters stuff coming, yet there’s still no mention of a spin-off involving that ghost that gives Ray Stantz a blowjob in the first movie. How is that ghost connected to Ivo Shandor? Do they know Viggo the Carpathian? The fans demand answers!

[via Variety]

 
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