In 1984, despite its oddball premise, Ghostbusters went on to become the second most successful movie of that year and the most commercially successful comedy movie (at the time). The movie was so phenomenally successful that it spawned multiple cartoon adaptations, video games, comic books, and lines of merchandise. In an attempt to capitalize on this success a sequel was hastily produced and released in 1989, following which the franchise descended into nostalgic obscurity. During the late 1990's, up until 2014 co-creators and co-stars, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis attempted many times to resurrect interest in the franchise by developing numerous scripts for a third movie, which following Ramis' death in February 2014 gathered more momentum with fans and the studio (Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony Pictures) until inexplicably a female-led reboot was greenlit and fast-tracked into production. Released in 2016, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call bombed at the box office and was met with mixed to negative reviews.
Despite claims from the reboots director (Paul Feig) and cast (Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones) that their movie was the victim of a campaign of misogynism led by a toxic fanbase, the warm reception that the forthcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife has received from the fanbase and general audiences has spoken volumes - that audiences are not interested in social-political agendas, forced representation/diversification or needless reboots.
Released today the first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife does seem to confirm that the movie will follow a group of children that will become the new team of Ghostbusters, as opposed to the team of adults originally proposed in Aykroyd and Ramis' proposed Ghostbusters 3. However, it seems that the movie will tie much more into the first movie with the inclusion of a mine (timestamp 01:42) named after the maniacal architect mentioned in, and originally intended to be the antagonist of the original movie; Ivo Shandor. While it may not be the Ghostbusters 3 fans wanted, the possibility of the movie delving deeper into the story of Shandor along with the many various easter eggs hidden in the trailer suggests that maybe, just maybe writer/director Jason Reitman (son of Ivan Reitman who directed the two original movies) could deliver a worthy sequel to the 1984 original.
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