Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is set to hit theaters this spring, and it's been a long time coming. A sequel to 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife was announced back in the spring of 2022, so we've had to wait almost two years to see the finished product.
Now, though, Carrie Coon's Callie Spengler and Paul Rudd's Gary Grooberson are returning to our screens in a matter of weeks – and they'll be joined by some very familiar faces. Picking up shortly after Afterlife left off, we're back in New York City over three decades after the events of the original Ghostbusters movies, and there's a brand-new threat for the gang to deal with: an army of ghosts and a very chilly summer.
If you're not up to date with everything Ghostbusters 4 yet, it's not too late to get up to speed. We've got it all here, from a full cast list, everything we know about the plot (including some exclusive quotes from the movie's director), and a summary of the trailers released so far.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire release date
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is set to hit the big screen on March 22, 2024 after being delayed from December 2023. That's a wait of over two years since Ghostbusters: Afterlife was released in cinemas back in November 2021.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire plot
Unlike Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which saw Callie Spengler (the estranged daughter of OG Ghostbuster Egon Spengler) and her family start a new life in Oklahoma, Frozen Empire sees the gang return to where it all started: New York City. And, more specifically, a certain firehouse…
Speaking to Total Film, director and co-writer Gil Kenan explained, "The move to Oklahoma in Afterlife was very much by design. We knew we had to get away from New York City in order to recontextualize what it meant to ghost-bust and what it meant to be a Ghostbuster. We wanted to refocus the stories on a character's arc; on the arc of the Spngler family and on Phoebe in particular. We needed to get away from the apparatus of ghostbusting in order to redefine it.
"Having done that, the next task was, 'How do you take that discovery? How do you take the path that's been laid out in front of our characters and force them to step into the ring? What does it mean to be a Ghostbuster? What does it mean to be a Ghostbuster in New York City? And specifically, what does it mean to be a Ghostbuster in New York City when the greatest threat ever facing the institution comes to bear?' That’s this story."
Back in the Big Apple, some familiar faces have set up a secret lab for research to take their bustin' to the next level. Two generations of Ghostbusters must then team up when malevolent forces released by an ancient artifact threaten to send the world into a second Ice Age.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire cast
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire sees the return of all the key Afterlife players – namely, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace. And, of course, the original gang is still bustin' away in NYC, so we'll also see Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson back in their jumpsuits. Annie Potts and William Atherton will also reprise their roles from the '80s classicc, as Janine and Walter Peck respectively.
A new movie does mean some new faces, though, including Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, as well as James Acaster as an Egon Spengler-like inventor and Emily Alyn Lind in a still undisclosed role. You can see the whole cast, with character names, below.
- Carrie Coon – Callie Spengler
- Finn Wolfhard – Trevor Spengler
- Mckenna Grace – Phoebe Spengler
- Paul Rudd – Gary Grooberson
- Kumail Nanjiani – Nadeem Razmaadi
- Patton Oswalt – Dr. Hubert Wartzki
- Celeste O'Connor – Lucky Domingo
- Logan Kim – Podcast
- Bill Murray – Dr. Peter Venkman
- Dan Aykroyd – Dr. Raymond Stantz
- Ernie Hudson – Dr. Winston Zeddemore
- Annie Potts – Janine Melnitz
- William Atherton – Walter Peck
- James Acaster – Lars Pinfield
- Emily Alyn Lind – TBC
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer
The initial teaser trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, released in November 2023, and didn't give much away about the movie, other than giving us our first glimpse at the impending risk of an Ice Age hitting Coney Island.
The full-length trailer, which was released in January and is available to watch above, however, gives us a much better idea of what to expect. We get a glimpse at the mysterious object that's the cause of this icy danger, as well as the "army of ghosts" descending on New York City that has the power to "scare people to death". There's also a sewer dragon (well, it looks like a dragon and it comes out of a sewer, anyway) that the team will be going up against.
For more, check out our guide to the rest of this year's most exciting movie release dates.
