Ghostbusters seems to have found its second wind as a franchise thanks to a well-received recent film. So what does one do when they're on their way back to the hallowed halls of Hollywood's greats? Naturally, one creates an animated spinoff.
Apparently not content to simply stick with its franchise tribute in the form of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the folks behind the supernatural franchise have now gotten the go-ahead from Netflix to produce a new animated series. The show will feature Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan as producers, both of whom served as writers for Afterlife while Reitman also directed. So it certainly seems as though the idea is already off to a promising start.
At the moment, nothing has been revealed as far as plot details, and no writers have been announced for the project. But Reitman's involvement is fitting for a number of reasons. First off, as the director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, he's already garnered some good will from the fanbase. But beyond that, he's also the son of the late Ivan Reitman, who directed the original Ghostbusters. That sounds like enough reason for fans to get their hopes up.
This won't be the first animated Ghostbusters series, of course. Long-time fans will already be familiar with The Real Ghostbusters, which ran for an impressive 7 seasons in the late 80s and early 90s and featured a star-studded voice cast, including original Garfield voice Lorenzo Music, Full House star Dave Coulier, and even Arsenio Hall. After that, Extreme Ghostbusters took over in 1997 with a decidedly less impactful run of 40 episodes. It included more seasoned voice actors like Tara Strong and Maurice LaMarche, the latter of whom also appeared in The Real Ghostbusters.
While the other 2 animated shows shared a continuity, with Extreme Ghostbusters set several years after the end of The Real Ghostbusters, it's unclear whether the new series will follow suit. Unlike the other 2, this one has a lot more lore to sort through. So it wouldn't be surprising to see it as more of a soft reboot that disregards previous entries, similar to how Lucasfilm handled the Star Wars canon after the Disney acquisition.
However it turns out, Ghostbusters has a pretty bright future. Between this new series and upcoming games like Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, fans will have plenty of content to chew on pretty soon. Here's hoping the unfairly dogpiled 2016 movie gets some more love too.
The unnamed Ghostbusters animated series will air exclusively on Netflix.
Source: Variety