There’s still more life in the Ghostbusters franchise and Sony is looking to bring it to the big screen. The studio announced that they are currently in active development on a sequel to last year’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife during their presentation at CinemaCon yesterday.
No other details beyond the fact that the studio had the project in development were forthcoming, though it is probably a safe bet that Ghostbusters creator Dan Aykroyd will be involved in some capacity. Also highly likely to be involved is Jason Reitman, son of the original film’s director and director and co-writer of Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
That the studio would be working on a sequel to Afterlife is no surprise. The film was made for a modest $75 million budget and pulled in $197 million at the worldwide box office, with ancillary streaming and home video revenue pushing it further into the black. The film reunited original Ghostbusters stars Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts with newcomers Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, and Carrie Coon.
Ghostbusters has been a high priority for the studio since they established the Ghost Corps production banner in-house to develop the franchise. Since then, Ghost Corps has overseen the 2016 Paul Feig-directed Ghostbusters reboot which starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the four paranormal removal experts in a story that took place in a separate continuity from the original first Ghostbusters films and Afterlife. Other projects have have been rumored to be in development by Ghost Corps including a male-led franchise reboot and an animated feature film and an Aykroyd-penned prequel film. The status of those projects is unknown, though it is possible that one or more than one of them may be dead.
