The 2016 all-female reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise was met with a mixed response. In itself, the finished film – featuring the likes of Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones (with himbo support from Chris Hemsworth) – was perfectly funny enough, but the inclusion of cameos of the original actors and an initial marketing campaign that couldn’t really decide whether it wanted to emphasise the gender-change, claim it wasn’t remotely important and then meandered between being promoted as both a sequel and a total re-invention in advance, led to some confused and negative coverage from which it never quite recovered.
Rumours that a Ghostbusters movie featuring surviving members of the original cast could eventually appear persisted, though it’s never seemed everyone has been on the same page at the same time. However, it now looks as if 2020 will bring an official ‘Ghostbusters 3‘ (technically a fourth movie if you include the reboot). It seems to be confirmed there will be some continuity with the original two movies, though it’s still not known to what extent the original cast will be involved (Bill Murray has most often been the one most reluctant to reprise his Peter Venkman role). One rumour says the main characters will be four teenagers (given that Ghostbusters inspired some of the tone for Stranger Things Season 2, it seems turnaround is fair play?) and possibly even the offspring of the original characters. The original director Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has been confirmed to be helming the project.
Beyond that, not a lot is known at this point, but the teaser trailer – featuring the familiar logo and Ecto-1 car – certainly whets the appetite for more slime and scares…
